Dead fish washing up on shore near Euclid Waterfront is ‘natural occurrence’, officials say

EUCLID, Ohio (WOIO) - It’s not something most are used to seeing but we’re learning that dead fish floating in Lake Erie is more normal than you’d think.

Tee Bailey told 19 News the stench is unbearable on the Euclid Waterfront.

“It was so bad, the seagulls weren’t even eating them,” he said

19 News viewers say the dead fish started washing up as early as Wednesday by the hundreds.

Right now, the cause is undetermined as to why fish are washing ashore but 19 News has reached out to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to investigate.

ODNR says this is a regular occurrence this time of year.

First Alert Meteorologist Sam Roberts broke it all down.

“So all of these dead fish are definitely related to the weather,” Roberts said. “Late last week, we had really strong northeast winds and what that did was bring a lot of colder oxygen-starved water to the surface of the lake so basically, the fish were struggling to breathe and they suffocated. This isn’t something that’s super rare around here and it actually typically happens every summer,” she said.

So to be clear, nothing is wrong with the water.

ODNR also tells 19 News that even though hundreds of fish died, this won’t affect the population. In fact, hungry wildlife in the forms of herons, raccoons, snapping turtles and bald eagles will help clean up the dead fish over the next few days.

Experts also say this natural occurrence could happen again soon in other places along the Lake Erie shoreline.

Copyright 2022 WOIO. All rights reserved.