By Evan Nemeroff
These dead bunker fish were spotted last week by residents who worried the deaths were due to pesticide spraying.
Nassau County Legislator Jeff Toback (D-Oceanside) confirmed that 2,000 fish were removed from the water on Sept. 14, and another 1,000 were taken out the next day. The fish were removed by the County Department of Public Works and the County Parks department.
“The State wanted the fish to sit and rot,” Legislator Toback said. “I worked with the County Public Works and Parks Departments to remove most of them so the park could be usable for county residents. I want residents to know that these fish died prior to the West Nile virus mosquito spraying conducted Sept. 10 by the Department of Health.”
According to the state Department of Environmental Conservation the bunker fish more than likely died after chasing smaller fish or being chased themselves by larger fish into a shallow portion of the creek where the oxygen was depleted by the large cluster of fish.
This occurrence often occurs in the summer time because of the warm weather.
The first time North Woodmere Park officials were aware of the dead fish was last last month on Aug. 25 when parkgoers told administration about the problem. Toback plans to write a letter to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to ask them to do testing to find out a definitive answer as to why the fish may be coming ashore, and thus dying.
There was a crew cleaning up the fish until 6 p.m. on Sunday, but Toback explained that it is difficult to get every single one as the tide continually sends more ashore.
“We continue to monitor the fish in the park and we want to make sure it is in a good condition for residents to be able to use the park,” Toback said.
It had been three years since something like this happened in the area, although the same thing did happen at North Woodmere Park six to seven years ago, according to an official of the park.
“The last time this happened was in August of 2005 in East Rockaway,” Legislator Toback said. “It really is a natural phenomenon happening when the water reaches a certain temperature.”
