Columbus parks employees have cleaned up hundreds of dead fish from Round Lake in Mill Race Park after a natural occurrence.
About 500 fish were found floating on the surface of the lake Monday, victims of lake turnover.
Columbus parks employees used nets to remove the fish on Tuesday. Most of the dead fish were catfish, carp and suckers, fish that are found near the bottom of Indiana rivers and lakes, according to parks employees.
Indiana Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman Lt. Angela Goldman said the natural occurrence of lake turnover is common at this time of year, and usually happens in shallow ponds and lakes, which warm up quickly as summer temperatures rise.
When a cooler rain follows the pond water warmup, which happened in the Columbus area last weekend, the warm pond water stirs up particulate matter on the bottom of the pond that was not previously exposed to oxygen, decomposing rapidly and drawing oxygen out of the water, according to naturalists. If this happens fast enough, there isn’t enough oxygen in the water to support the fish and they die.
Parks workers said the fish get into Round Lake when there is flooding in the Flatrock River, which runs through the park.
Fish that happen to be in the lake as the water recedes stay there until the next flood, when they have a chance to leave the lake and return to the river.
Goldman said the dead fish represented all species commonly found in a river.
