A lot of dead little fish in Lake Washington

[p.t.]

This evening I went to Medina Beach Park around 8:00PM, and I saw a lot of dead fish floating in the water around the dock. I'd say there are about 80 of them, around 2" to 3", but there is also a bigger one, about 6" or so. I managed to bring home a few samples, but I can't tell what kind of fish are they. I wonder is this normal? Or should I report this to WDFW?

[fishaholictaz]

put up a pic so we can id them....

[ckim85]

sticklebacks...

they have a very short life span and according to some members on another website, they die immediately after their first/only spawning season.

[returnofthefish]

What kind of fish were they? Since you have some dead fish as samples, contact the DFW. Give the Mill Creek region 4 office a call on Monday and let them know you have samples. They will probably say its no big deal or ask to see them.

[jf0]

Poke them, some come alive! Really, I was out today with davidwat1 and we saw quite a few but I don't recall the area's we were in specifically. Some looked just like my swim shads, I was already awed by the selection Dave had so I didn't bring those out to try.

[p.t.]

[davidwat1]

p.t. thanks for starting this thread! This has been driving me crazy, I'm sure some of these are sticklebacks, but I'm also sure there are some other species mixed in there too! Great pictures, I'm dying to know what these are and what the deal is with all of them being dead or (as justin mentioned) looking dead until you poke them and then they swim away! Anyways, I'm really curious what's going on with all these dead fish, and the weird condition they appear to be in.

[SPARKY101]

Yup same dead things i seen out there last weekend when you and the flips went out DW1.hmmmm

[p.t.]

A little research on the web (these days everybody is a "researcher" of some kind :-), I believe they are sticklebacks, as someone has already pointed out. To be more exact, the one with the red belly, it's a male. They have a short lifespan of 2 to 3 eyars, but they spawn a lot, not just once as someone mentioned above. Although I didn't see any mentioning about their "mass extinction event" like I saw, but I guess this is no big deal. So I will just let it go.

About mid May and early June this year, every time I went to that park, I saw a lot of little fish jumping on the water. I never paid attention to them. Now I believe those jumping fish are sticklebacks.

[Shad_Eating_Grin]

sticklebacks (dead ones) were all over the place on lk WA shorelines last weekend. I see it most every spring. Not sure if its natural or something due to water temps or other abnormal conditions.

Many of those small fish you saw jumping earlier in the spring were probably salmon smolts.

[BassFanatic]

I was gonna start this same post because I was wondering the same thing about these dead fish. On three different ocassions on the lake I have saw thousands of those fish all over the place. It had me concernced because this is the first time I saw this many of them dead.

[howardi211]

yeah, i saw the same thing last week. went to lake washington to fish and saw hundreds of them floating on the shoreline. about 1 out of every 50 were barely alive...barely kicking their tails when i poked them. i didnt see any of the lower picture ones, all of them were the first picture (the red belly ones)

[topdawg47]

Happens every year around this time! At least from my observations..

[G-Man]

Spawning die off. Happens every year and makes an easy meal for the birds and fish.

[Teal101]

Yep. We see it on the Columbia too. Just dead sticklebacks.

[fisherdane]

Although it is true that it happens every year, I still see way more this year than previous 3 years. I live in a waterfront apt. in the south part of the lake, and have never experienced this many though.

[G-Man]

Perhaps this is why the cutts aren't on the bite, they are too full of the extra bait in the lake. Everything goes in cycles, this just may be the banner year for stickleback.

[p.t.]

Good to know it happens every year. Had me worried for a while.

[clam man]

Yep,

you see it every year. I saw a lot on Lake Union last year at the 4th of july...thought it was all the boat traffic, and some people throwing fire crackers in the lake. But, I have seen it before...there are a ton of reasons fish can die off like that. Water temp changes, changes in food, cold snaps, lack of food, but it is a pretty regular cycle on some bodies of water.

[G-Man]

Just ran across this on the King County web site. In the event someone thinks that we may be full of it, here is the official King County response to the little dead fish inquiry.

http://green.kingcounty.gov/swimbeach/s ... eaths.aspx