State Says Spawning Stress Lead to Fish Kill; Residents Point to Drawdown

By Noah Hoffenberg
iBerkshires Correspondent
04:07PM / Sunday, August 16, 2009

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HINSDALE, Mass. — State officials are attributing a massive fish kill late last month at Ashmere Lake to stress from seasonal mating.

However, the Peru/Hinsdale Conservation Commission chairman thinks the large number of dead fish are related to April's extreme drawdown of the lake, and has told the state so in a letter.

Over the Patriots Day holiday weekend in April, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, which owns the lake, executed a drawdown that drained the lake down about 5 feet, instead of the permitted 2. There has been no explanation from the state as to what happened and why.

"I posit that the extraordinary fish kill that has occurred was directly due to this illegal drawdown, especially since it was spawning time, and that ... the north side was suffering from stagnation, low oxygen levels and low water levels," Chairman Michael Frederick wrote in a letter to state officials on Aug. 1.

The state, on the other hand, attributes the fish kill to spawning-related stress.

"Please do not laugh, and when I get updates and appropriate clarifications, I will pass the info on to everyone,” wrote Christopher Hookie, the DCR's Central Berkshire district manager, Division of State Parks and Recreation, in an e-mail to dozens of area residents and officials. "Remember, I am only the messenger. ... (how can I put this) ... the fish apparently died because of excessive stress due to spawning/mating."

According to Hookie, hundreds of dead fish began appearing in both basins (the lake is split by Route 143) during the last week and half of July. Both sides of Ashmere Lake showed signs of fish kill, wrote Hookie. The lake straddles the Peru and Hinsdale line.

After being contacted by a concerned longtime lake resident, Frederick stopped on the lake's causeway in late July. He spotted dead fish on both sides. He said in an interview Friday that a number of other longtime residents had said they had seen more numbers of dead fish this year than in any other that they could recall.

"Every summer, there's some [fish kill]," Frederick said he was told by a state fisheries expert in Westborough. "Because of a lack of rainfall and heat, that causes an oxygen problem somehow, and certain
smaller fish will perish."

Frederick noted how this year's rainfall has been extraordinarily high. Hookie wrote that only perch, blue gill and sunfish were killed off.

"Apparently the rare conditions were right in the lake for all the fish species to do their thing at the same time, and many of the fish died due to stress," he wrote, adding state officials took a sample of dead fish for testing, and residents will be notified if any other causes for the deaths becomes apparent.

A 1993 brief on conditions at the lake by the Department of Fish and Wildlife notes: "Winter drawdowns conducted to limit the amount of aquatic vegetation have apparently caused fish kills at this lake in the past."

The extreme drawdown and fish kill occurred simultaneously to ongoing repair work on the Ashmere dam. The 1,525-foot-long, 32-foot high earthen dam — deemed a high hazard structure by the commonwealth — soon will be expanded to about twice its current footprint.

Metal sheeting has been installed, the old spillway has been removed, and the forms are being set to construct concrete footings, said Frederick. Sheeting and hay bales are also being placed in adjacent
wetlands areas.

Have Berkshire hilltown news? Contact Noah Hoffenberg at hoff1013@gmail.com.

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