Channel 11 News tonight. Mississippi dead fish.

Just saw there’s a story about 1000’s of dead fish on the Mississippi. Sounds kind of scary.. Hopefully nothing too serious happened.

Quote:

---

Just saw there’s a story about 1000’s of dead fish on the Mississippi. Sounds kind of scary.. Hopefully nothing too serious happened.

---

If there are thousands of dead fish it was serious.

Did it say what kind they were? Maybe a shad die-off?? Keep us posted please.

Not a good sign…

They didnt mention species. They said how it happened, but Ive been drinkin and I already forgot…

The reactor went down and stoped the flow of warm water. It dropped the temp so fast it killed all the fish. Bummer, never thought about that happening.

Quote:

---

They didnt mention species. They said how it happened, but Ive been drinkin and I already forgot…

---

Thanks for the honesty..

Yikes – Thankfully they have identified what caused the issue and maybe take steps to avoid it in the future.

If this was in Wisconsin people would have blamed the kill on delayed mortality due to the Stren tournament.

Quote:

---

If this was in Wisconsin people would have blamed the kill on delayed mortality due to the Stren tournament.

---

Isn’t that the truth.

Sorry to hear about the fish. The might MISS. is pretty good and renewing itself. It will rebound I’m sure.

I fail to see how Xcel is really responsible for this… If the had to take a unit off line, they did so for a reason. I’m sure they were well within their permit levels.

Sheesh The plant 10 miles from my house and I had no idea of this… So glad they send out these calanders telling us what to do during these emergency’s but yet we never know when there is a emergency..

Assuming we are talking about the Monticello plant..

There are many reasons they may shut down a unit, most them are really small minor events that would pose no threat to your safety. Otherwise you would know, trust me.

Sad, sad story! Although it would be sorta, I said sorta neat to see?

Post deleted by d-nort

Its ok as long as it wasn’t bass fisherman.

Any fish kill is a bad deal.

Why is it that a large company kills a few fish and the world is in an uproar, but as private citizens you think nothing of burning up as much fossil fuel as you can in your truck and toys, and put untold thousands of pounds of garbage in a landfill each year….do you think you are not killing anything??? Or, are you somehow exempt from taking care of our environment because you’re just one “little guy” and not a large corporation? Just playing devil’s advocate, I’m in no way perfect when it comes to preserving our natual resources, but I just think it gets too easy to point a finger at big business everytime something like this happens. Heck, most of the fish that died wouldn’t even have been there to be killed had the water temperature not been un-naturally altered in the first place. They are drawn to that area due to the warm water discharge; warm water created by yours and mine appetite for un-interrupted electrical service. Xcel is only providing that which you and I demand, so be careful who you point fingers at!

I agree with you slipsinker. This was an unfortunate accident with unfortunate results with the fish kill.

I am sure it has happened before, and it will happen again. I fish by different warm water discharges along the river and they do provide some very good fishing. The flow always seems to be intermittent, and the water can be very hot(around 85 degrees or so), or probably more(nick would have better numbers). I know the teps and flow do fluctuate no matter where you are at.

Xcel responsable for killing the fish.. yes, and no. The warm water pouring into the cold water is going to stratisfy(sp?) the temps a bit, and none of the fish are going to be directly in the hottest water. The fish would never live long enough to become adults if they did.

Even fishing in July the cooling flow can substancialy raise the water temp in a small area… so fish would be subject to major temperature changes in the warmest of months… 90 degree water to 70(20 degree drop) is plenty enough to kill a fish, anyone with an aquarium knows this.

So I guess Xcel is responsable that the flow had to be shut down completely, but what most dont know is that flow isnt the same temp all the time, and the water doesnt collect into a pool with constant flow to become a consistant temperature.. I would assumethe fish were probably sitting in water from 40-50 degrees.. but thats still a big drop to 30.

The river will replentish itself, everything is not dead. Its all part of life for any aquatic species in a *industrial zone*. If the kill was overall huge to the waterways, there woulnt be any fish left in the river around the twin cities. Fish are very dependant on these industrial flows here because the baitfish collect in/around them.

It sucks that a kill happened, but its not the end of fishing as we knew it around the monticello area. The power plant is the main reason why the fishing is so good in the direct area.

Whoa dude! I obvoiusly did not read into this as much as you. I was just saying someone needs to be accountable.

Quote:

---

but as private citizens you think nothing of burning up as much fossil fuel as you can in your truck and toys, and put untold thousands of pounds of garbage in a landfill each year….do you think you are not killing anything???

---

BTW Slipsinker, do you own a boat and a truck? How about put trash on the curb every week?

Feel free to comment however you’d like, but I will not post on this again (sorry I did in the first place). I knew there was a reason why I never reply to posts like this. I’m off to educate myself on how to catch more fish… . You should check out all the good info being shared in the Miss River Bass Forum . …

Quote:

---

I’m off to educate myself on how to catch more fish… . You should check out all the good info being shared in the Miss River Bass Forum . …

---

There are some deranged folks in this world! educate and bass.. is that one of those oxymoron things?

We all need to relax a bit, nobody is happy there was a fish kill, this one happened to be due to a energy plant.. If they want to be held accountable and make effort to restock or whatever they have to do… thats great… as long as it doesnt raise my electricity bill(or anybodies).

I dont think it was neccessary to go into the clean planet action mode by any means… especially talking about the issue on an internet forum that it takes energy plants like that to make it possible to turn on the computer to be active in the forum! We call all try to be conservationist all we want, but the fact is these places are neccessary to support our way of life. A problem happened, they are doing all they can do to correct the problem overall. I dont think we can ask more?

d-nort, feel free not to reply, but if you go back and read my post it says I’m playing devil’s advocate. It also says that I am in no way perfect when it comes to protecting the environment. The whole point of my post was to get people to think about the big picture rather than jumping on the “Big Business=Bad” bandwagon everytime something like this happens. So, to answer your questions, Yes, I own a truck and a boat, and I put trash on the curb…but only every 2-3 weeks…and I can get the lid closed completely every single time, how about you?!?

Ok…this is my last post .

It is pretty obvious that I like big motors and stuff that goes fast. I seriously doubt that the “green” people in the world would let me join their gang. Unfortunately, I read “Fish Kill” in the post and made a knee-jerk reply because I was upset. I think I’m becomming half fish… .

OK, now I’m off to the Bass Forum… and yes, there is a lot to learn

I guess I look at this at a different angle.

The Mississippi (along with a few other major rivers in the country) are being primarily used for both power and transportation of goods (that us consumers demand).

A fish kill is a “hiccup” to the eco-system that the powerplants and transport companies have done positive to the river.

Some folks may feel different, but if it wasn’t for the powerplants and the barges (thanks to the Corp of Eng), the river would not be the fishery it is today!

Kudos to Exel for stepping up to the plate to fix the hiccup.

Again, it is very sad to see thousands of fish die. A terrible loss indeed.

I Wish Bass fisherman would get your kind of response Gary over a tournament fish kill.

Thanks

I hear ya Slop!
But think about it.

If it wasn’t for the Corp, putting in the wingdams and the dams……..We wouldn’t have anything for a fishery……It would just be a river……..

Imagine Redwing Dam being removed…….and all the wingdams removed from P3?

Those dams were not put there for us fisherman.

By “fate” we’re lucky that they are there and the fish like them!!!!!!

I agree with what Gary said. And d-nort, I didn’t mean to sound like I was attacking you. Sometimes I strike faster than a smallie on a hot-summer day, I apologize.

Gary, you are the voice of reason. The Mississippi is primarily a river and it’s main priority is for navigation. This is why the Corps has the lock and dam system as well as all the wingdams and channel structure. They were put there to maintain the channel depth so that barges can navigate the river. Sport fishing is way down the list of priorities. Any fish kill is a shame but there are many other things that happen on the river that affect the fish populations. Some of these things we might be able to control but as I said sport fishing is not high on the list. For instance the mortality rate of walleye hatchlings could be cut substantially if the barges would stop running for the 2 or 3 weeks after the eggs hatch. These tiny walleyes have no fins when they first hatch (only a tail) and they float at the mercy of the current down the channel. Thousands/millions of these fry get sucked into the screws on the tow boats and are killed when in this helpless state. A power plant discharge shut down fish kill kills far fewer fish than say one tow boat pushing 15 barges up the river. The only reason you won’t see this reported on the tube is because the fry are too-small to see.

Eyehunter

Did I read above that the discharge is still “off”? If so, when its flipped back on, will this same effect happen in reverse with the rapidly warming water?

Hopefully they consider this if there’s an option to slowly re-implement the discharge.

Maybe they could hire AlvinMack to go catch all them smallies and take em down river where it would be safer! Hey Mike, want some help!