Second big fish kill in less than week reported in Plaquemines Parish

by Bob Warren

Plaquemines Parish officials are continuing to investigate a fish kill discovered Thursday.

P.J. Hahn, coastal zone director for the parish, said the parish would like to see more testing of the area where the kill was reported to determine whether oil from the BP spill contributed to the kill, as well as earlier fish kill reported last week.

"These are pretty sizable kills,'' he said in an Associated Press story. "We have never seen large fish kills like this or the frequency of then prior to the spill.''

Thursday's kill was discovered behind the barrier island of Bay Joe Wise on the west side of the Mississippi River, officials said.

Last week, thousands of dead fish were found in Bayou Chaland, also on the west side of the river. State wildlife authorities said that fish kill was due to low oxygen levels in the water, which they did not tie to the BP oil spill.

The state said a fish kill reported in St. Bernard Parish last month was also due to low oxygen levels, not oil from the spill.

The Times-Picayune