DEP received report Thursday

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 08/15/07

BY TERRY GAUTHIER MUESSIG
STAFF WRITER

ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS — For the third time in two months, hundreds of dead menhaden fish have been sighted in the Bayshore area.

About six weeks ago, the state Department of Environmental Protection had the water tested after hundreds of menhaden were found dead in the water near the piers in Keyport and in the Belford section of Middletown.

But this time the water was not tested because when officials arrived at the scene of the reported fish kill at the Atlantic Highlands harbor, the fish were no longer there.

"The water-quality testing we did (six weeks ago) came back fine," said Darlene Yuhas, a spokeswoman for the DEP. The department tested the water for dissolved oxygen levels and chlorophyll.

Menhaden swim in extremely tight schools, Yuhas said. In doing so, the fish crowd themselves so tightly that it causes them to die from a lack of oxygen.

This summer, fish kills have been reported in New York's Jamaica Bay and in the three Bayshore towns, said Andrew Willner, of the NY/NJ Baykeeper.

Willner said there is an extraordinary amount of menhaden in the waters this year, and he is not convinced the cause is the fish themselves.

He said the low-dissolve oxygen results still do not explain why only the adult menhaden are dying. An adult fish is between 6 and 8 inches long. In observing the areas, Willner said the adults are at the top of the water and the juveniles are swimming below the dead fish.

"I think it is getting worse," said Willner, who has been the baykeeper for 18 years. In past years, he said the sightings have been limited to the end of the summer, not the entire length of the summer.

On Thursday, Benson Chiles of Atlantic Highlands called the DEP to report up to 500 dead menhaden in the borough marina.

Chiles, 39, went to the harbor to work on his boat. While there, he saw hundreds of menhaden as well as some blueclaw crabs and parts of lobsters floating in the water. He immediately notified the DEP as well as Harbor Master Bill Bate and the borough's Environmental Commission.

"I have seen dead fish before, but never on this scale," Chiles said.

Menhaden also are called mossbunker and are used as bait fish.

Chiles said he was not an expert on the subject, however, he is a consultant to environmental organizations and works for the Coastal Ocean Coalition and Environmental Defense, here, which promotes an ecosystems approach to managing the marine environment.

"In 2005 we (the coalition) published a report entitled "Ocean Protection in NJ: A Blueprint for State Level Action,' " he wrote in an e-mail. "The report highlighted low levels of dissolved oxygen as a major concern to the health of the marine ecosystem."

Yuhas verified that Chiles called the department after he saw the fish, and officials were at the borough's pier the following day. However, when the officials got to the pier, there were no dead fish in the water, she said.

Bate said he, too, was at the docks on Friday and that there were no dead fish in the water. He said he surmised the fish must have washed out to sea during the night.

"The fish could have washed up here due to the rainstorm in New York the night before," Bate said. Whenever there are heavy rains north of the borough, debris of all sorts ends up in the water at the municipal harbor, he said.

Since the beginning of August, there have not been any other incidents, Bate said.

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