PHOTO BY JEREMY MOULE Dead alewives have been washing up on the shores of Lake Ontario, including along Durand Eastman Beach.
Visitors to Durand-Eastman Beach may have noticed something fishy recently: small, silver, fish have washed up dead where Lake Ontario’s waters lap at the sand of the beach.
But the state Department of Environmental Conservation cautions there’s no reason for alarm. The body count, according to the agency, is likely related to the lake’s natural cycles.
The agency has fielded several reports about dead fish along Lake Ontario, DEC spokesperson Kevin Frazier said.
Staff “determined that alewives are dying as they get trapped in cold water in the northern end of their natural range,” Frazier explained in an e-mail. “This causes stress and occasionally mortality among this species.”