THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 19, 1996 TAG: 9607190612
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: 32 lines
Hurricane Bertha didn't do extensive damage to Albemarle area property last week.
But officials say the storm killed thousands of fish in Northeastern North Carolina in waters where debris kept oxygen levels too low.
Scientists from the state Division of Water Quality said species killed in Pasquotank and Perquimans counties included menhaden, catfish, yellow perch and shad.
The belly-up fish were discovered in the days immediately following Bertha's blow.
One kill was in a canal near Holiday Island in Perquimans County. Another was in a dead-end waterway leading off New Begun Creek near Weeksville in Pasquotank County.
``Hurricane Bertha has been identified as the probable cause of the kills,'' said Don Reuter, a marine ecology specialist with the Division of Water Quality area headquarters in Washington, N.C. The division is part of the state Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources.
The immediate cause of the kills was a near-zero level of oxygen in waters where the fish died, Reuter said.
``The normal oxygen level has been lowered in the affected areas,'' he added. ``Organic matter, such as leaves, tree limbs and other vegetation, prevents a normal flushing action in the canals.''
Renewal of normal levels of oxygen in the stagnant waters will take some time, Reuter said.
``What we need,'' he said, ``is a lot of rain to speed it up.'' by CNB