January’s cold snap killed several species of fish in Lake Tohopekaliga, including one commonly called armored catfish.

By Rick Madewell
Assistant Editor

Dead fish … everywhere.

That’s how many people are describing the deluge of fish carcasses spit from the lake waters where they once thrived.

People from all across Florida — and many here in Osceola County — are spotting this very unusual phenomenon along the shorelines. What’s not unusual, though, is the reason.

“This is a huge number of fish,” Bernetti, of St. Cloud, said. “We’ve had reports of armored catfish and tilapia (floating to the county’s shorelines). The largemouth bass and speckled perch should be fine — they are more cold tolerant. It will be interesting to see how this affects things three or four years down the road.”

Bernetti explained that many Florida fish can survive in water temperatures as low as 59 degrees, but if it gets lower than that, the mortality rate will grow. During the recent cold snap, when there was a 10-day stretch of below-freezing weather, water temperatures dipped down to 54 degrees in many areas.

“Most of us feel Mother Nature always does a better job than man. If she comes along and removes the exotic and weak fish, that will leave more room for the strong to survive,” Bernetti said. “If we, as humans, are respectful and prudent, we will allow the fishery to heal and the outdoors will be better for it. It is a cleansing more than anything. It hurts, but it is natural.”

Along the shores of Lake Tohopekaliga near downtown Kissimmee, scores of fish were spotted recently washed up on a boat ramp, while many more were scattered along the shoreline. Hungry ducks were seen feasting on the carcasses. Passersby wondered why this was happening.

Bernetti said the last time temperatures were this brutal for fish was more than 30 years ago, in 1977.

“We have to understand that fish are cold blooded,” Bernetti said. “Whatever the temperature of the surrounding water, that’s their body temp. When the temperature of the water falls below their tolerance level, they become stunned and die. Fish must pass water through their gills to extract oxygen. If the water is too cold, they are unable to do so.”

Many of the fish that died, said Bernetti, initially sank to the bottom of the water and later resurfaced and were washed up onto shorelines because of decomposition.

Kissimmee City Manager Mark Durbin, as well as Park and Recreation Director Dan Loubiér, are coordinating clean-up efforts on the lakeshore within city limits. As of Thursday afternoon, many areas were reported as cleaned up. An additional plan of action was in the works to retrieve the fish from hard-to-access areas, and other agencies were being contacted to ask for help.

FWC has reported its scientists are actively monitoring and collecting information on the widespread fish-kill reports they have received from the field in order to analyze the impacts to fish populations.

According to the FWC, two positive impacts from this are that native freshwater fish species were largely unaffected by the cold. Primarily, only exotic freshwater fish died off, and all but one of the exotic species killed were from illegal introductions and are generally considered undesirable.

Fish from many waterways statewide were affected, including freshwater lakes, ponds, canals, estuaries and near-shore coastal waters. Reports to FWC offices, the FWC Fish Kill Hotline and observations by FWC staff in the field indicate that a wide variety of freshwater and saltwater species have been affected by severe cold temperatures.

Some of the marine species affected include snook, tarpon, bonefish, mullet, red and black drum, catfish, groupers (Nassau, black, gag, red and goliath), snapper (red, lane and mangrove), grunts, jacks, ladyfish, barracuda, parrotfish, several baitfish species, stingrays and sharks.

Freshwater species impacted are almost exclusively exotic species such as tilapia, brown hoplo and suckermouth catfish. The only regulated freshwater species that experienced significant impact was the peacock bass in the southern part of the state.