Aaron LaRose found a whole lot of dead fish while trying his luck on Poine aux Chenes Wildlife Management Area this weekend.
© Aaron LaRoseAaron LaRose found a whole lot of dead fish while trying his luck on Poine aux Chenes Wildlife Management Area this weekend.
Aaron LaRose had his fishing trip ruined Sunday when he ran across a considerable fish kill in the coastal marshes of Terrebonne Parish. The kill, which was on Pointe aux Chenes Wildlife Management Area, included baitfish, rough fish and some game fish, LaRose said.

"I was amazed and saddened how many flounder were dead," he said.

The kill was centered north of Island Road within the boundary of the WMA, LaRose said.

Jason Adriance, a fisheries biologist with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said the agency became aware of the kill this weekend, and has been monitoring it.

"We suspect it was (caused by) low dissolved oxygen due to an algal bloom," he said.

Fish kills sometimes occur in Louisiana's coastal waters when algae proliferate in warm, still waters. When the algae die, the decaying process sucks oxygen from the water, often trapping fish in hypoxic areas that can't sustain life. Algal blooms are most common in the late summer and early fall.

LaRose said about 30 people were fishing along Island Road, and he warned several about the kill. The anglers fishing that side of the road weren't catching much of anything, he said.

LaRose said he caught some speckled trout early in the morning on the east side of Wonder Lake, which is west of the area where he saw the kill.