Message #226267

[Keith Ranville]

Thousands Of Birds, Fish, Mysteriously Die In Arkansas

By Elizabeth C.

SOMETHING'S ROTTEN IN ARKANSAS -- but apparently it's nothing to get alarmed about.

As many as 5,000 blackbirds and 100,000 fish have been found dead or dying within 125 miles of each other in Arkansas, but state officials say the two massive kill-offs are unrelated.

State officials have also reportedly ruled out a toxic dump and low oxygen levels as causes of the fish kill.

The drum fish were found washed along the banks of the up ashore Arkansas River near Ozark on Friday. "The fish kill only affected one species of fish," Keith Stephens of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission told the Associated Press. "If it was from a pollutant, it would have affected all of the fish, not just drum fish."

The fish washed up about 125 west of Beebe, where 5,000 blackbirds fell from the sky just before midnight New Year's Eve. "Test results usually were inconclusive, but the birds showed physical trauma and that the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail," Karen Rowe, a state ornithologist, reported to local media.

Authorities are still investigating both incidents and are advising locals not to eat any of the dead fish found along the water banks.
http://crabbygolightly.com/mt/2011/01/thousands_of_birds_fish_myster.html