BATTON ROCK, Jan 28 (AP): About 280 million fish died in inland waters after Hurricane Ida last summer — nearly 40 percent more than those killed in Louisiana waters after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, according to the state’s report. The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries estimated on Thursday.
The department said in a news release that catchable fish are usually rare for about a year in areas where larger fish die, but populations tend to rebound.
Most of Ida’s people are in an area where the storm was moving slowly before leaving the state, said Robbie Maxwell, whose job as an inland fisheries technical advisor includes that division’s fishing coordinator.
Ida killed at least 28 people and caused billions of dollars in damage in Louisiana. The department has estimated the loss from fisheries to US$240.9 million out of a total of US$218.7 million.
By comparison, total fisheries damage was estimated at $80.6 to $120.9 million USD for three hurricanes, Laura, Delta and Zeta, that hit the state in 2020. The state’s agricultural damage is estimated at at least USD 584 million.
Maxwell said Hurricane Laura, which struck southwest Louisiana on August 27, 2020, had a similar magnitude to Ida, but moved much faster and left a very different pattern.
“Instead of concentrated fish kills, they were scattered over 9 million acres,” he said. It is approximately 14,000 square miles or 36,400 square kilometers.
In an area of about 2,800 square miles (7,200 square kilometers), most of the fish died within a week of Ida’s August 29 landfall, the department said.
It said that 19 out of 20 large fish die in areas where hurricane-force winds blow.
Deaths are caused by low oxygen levels after tropical storm winds and storm waves dump in sediment and debris, which uses up oxygen as it decomposes.
The department insisted that there was no way to ascertain the exact number of fish killed. It said the estimate was based on factors including wetland maps, the known extent of fish kills, historical samples and expert opinion about the severity of the kills.
Wildlife and Fisheries recorded the deaths of about 20 fish from staff observations, public phone calls and social media posts throughout southeast Louisiana.
Maxwell said that near Gibson — on the southwestern edge of its map — there was only one where winds were less than 74 mph (119 kph).
At the northern end, “there was only one over I-12 on a tributary of the Tangipahoe River,” he said.
Maxwell said that there was widespread wreaking in the drainage of Lake Maurapas east and southeast of Baton Rouge, and some were also reported around Haumea and the Mississippi River to the east, including the west coast of New Orleans. – but not the east bank of the city or Lake Pontchartrain, its northern border.
In the months following the fish kill, live fish spread to areas where they now have little prey or competition for nutrients. “Next spring, they will be born with extremely high success rates,” the department said. (AP) Rs.
(This story has been published as part of an auto-generated Syndicate wire feed. Headline or body have not been edited by ABP Live.)
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