OAKLAND (KCBS RADIO) – Summer-long algae bloom in Oakland’s Lake Merritt has caused a massive fish die-off, with thousands of fish succumbing to a lack of oxygen.
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The fish have begun floating to the top of the lake's surface and then washing ashore.
An event at this scale hasn't been seen at Lake Merritt in the last 25 years.
"It turns out we have very low oxygen in the lake right now," said Katie Noonan, Co-Chair of the Rotary Nature Center Friends, an Oakland nonprofit that advocates for the lake's nature center.
The center, along with student volunteers, have spent weeks measuring the lake's oxygen levels at the bottom and surface.
The results have been then sent to the California State Water Resources Control Board and other agencies for analysis.
This past weekend the levels were the lowest they've been since the center began measuring them.
"It's very serious for the organisms affected," said Noonan. "They will rebound when the plankton leaves."
"This a very unusual die-off, we haven't seen this for a while," she said. The last time things were this extreme was in 1997.
And it's not just fish that have been impacted.
"Coral's out there, we have sponges, shrimp, we have crabs," said Dr. Richard Bailey, Executive Director of the Lake Merritt Institute, a nonprofit that helps take care of the lake.
A number of things are causing the oxygen depletion.
"It always occurs at high temperature – high temperature speeds up the growth of plankton," he said.
Signs have been posted around the lake for some time now warning people not to come into contact with the water, including pets.
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