Anyone know why there's dead fish at lake Washington?

[AlexanderS]

Yesterday 06/07/15 the wife and I went down to Kirkland water front for dinner and a walk and I noticed A lot of dead fish along the shore at the main waterfront and Carroline beach,Waverly beach. I know that there were mostly perch,some small trout,and a lot of smaller fish that were approx 3 inches long,almost looked like small salmon? let me know what you guys think,I have no idea why?

[Amx]

Can happen every year when the weather is hot. Lack of oxygen in the water. When it gets windy again the surface water will get re-oxygenated. Yes it can be something else, but.....

[coretron22]

The Sticklebacks die off and float everywhere when the temps get hot. The Perch just had a big spawn too. I'm guessing the majority of the dead fish were the 3" sticklebacks, which is totally normal.

[G-Man]

Yes, the stickleback die off is normal after their spawning is done. However, there are a large number of perch floating among them as well. The dead perch appear to be in good shape, at least for dead fish, and look just like the live ones (size & weight wise) we caught on Saturday. The oxygen levels and water temps in the lake have kept within the normal bounds for this time of year, so I don't believe either of those are a factor. What we also noticed was the large amount of aquatic vegetation floating around, uncommon for this time of year. It makes me suspect a herbicide may have been deployed for weed control. Typically it isn't used until summer is in full swing, but this season the waters warmed up a little ahead of time. My other thoughts were high PH levels and netting for research data. We'll see if King County gets around to releasing a statement regarding this in the not too distant future.

[salmonbarry]

I happened to get to 'work' from another friends boat yesterday and when we were putting in, they were spraying all around the launch at Coulon out of boat some sort of pesticide where the guys in the boat were wearing masks. We talked to someone who said they were trying to kill off the milfoil which could be some of the problem around the docks on the lake if that is actually what they were doing. Could explain the dead fish and vegetation floating all over the lake~ just an observation and when we came back in there were dead perch floating around the launch!

[coretron22]

I've seen a lot more perch floating since this was posted. Caught one at Coulon yesterday that had bloody spots on its belly and obvious parasites. Last year I fished around Stan Sayers/Seward Park after they sprayed for milfoil, but do not remember seeing so many floaters...still wondering what's up. I wouldn't eat the Perch...but I don't eat any fish out of WAWA anyway.

[AlexanderS]

Wow...yes I think whatever chemicals were used really damaged the perch this year,I don't know if if recommend eating perch from Lake Wa,I know it's a huge lake and not all perch were affected by the chemicals,but I'm pretty sure you can find traces of it in the fish. I'm sure it won't cause any harm..or will it? I'm Bellevue there sings stating not to eat or fish for perch.im not sure what was used,but can't be good.