Countless fish die off in Orange County lake, sparking concerns from fishermen

By Rob McMillan

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    ORANGE COUNTY, California (KABC) — Fish are dying off en masse at a lake in Orange County. Fishermen say they’re upset by what’s caused so many varieties of fish to end up dead.

Video shows countless large fish dead, floating on the water last week.

For decades, people have visited Laguna Niguel Lake to escape, and for Orange County residents, it’s a lot closer than San Diego, Los Angeles or the Inland Empire.

“This lake is a recreational lake for fishing, recreation, walking, hiking, biking,” said Billy Egan, a fishing enthusiast with Western Outdoor News.

Egan says the resource, for those wanting to fish, is now devastated.

“There’s blue gill, there’s catfish, there’s carp, and unfortunately, the bigger fish, which are the ones that keep ecosystems going,” Egan said.

Egan said the last die-off happened in 2013, but it was nothing like this.

“My whole purpose in doing this is just to bring it out to the public, just so that this doesn’t happen again, so there’s things set in place to mitigate this,” Egan said. “Because OC Parks had a great response the very next day with about 12 employees, 3 boats, 2 canoes, a backhoe, trucks, getting all the dead fish out, but if they’d spent half the resources it took to clean it up to prevent it, we wouldn’t be here right now talking about this.”

So what happened? Eyewitness News asked 5th District Supervisor Katrina Foley.

“A combination of things, I think, occurred. We had some aerators that were broken and that had to be fixed, and so there was a time period when they had about six of the aerators that were not working, and then there was some algae growth, so that contributed to the reduction of the oxygen in the lake,” Foley said.

The aerators are now working, but Foley said she still has concerns. She’s hosting a town hall meeting next month.

“I am concerned about the management of the lake, and taking into consideration the oxygen levels during that time period where we didn’t have the aerators,” Foley said.

“You can put catfish in here, you can put crappie, you can put blue gill, you can put trout in here, but it’s going to take years for this lake to come back to the bass fishing fishery it’s known for,” Egan said.

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