One of the worst

An advocate for the Neuse River said a fish kill that began last week is one of the worst in two decades.

Larry Baldwin, Neuse Riverkeepers, estimates as many as 50 million fish, mostly atlantic menhaden, have died in a stretch from New Bern to Slocum Creek.

That count would make it the worst kill this decade and the second or third worst since an estimated 1 billion fish died in a 1991 kill that is considered a record for the region.

Baldwin was on the river with three boats and seven Neuse River Foundation volunteers on Wednesday, including former Riverkeeper Rick Dove.

Jason Green, of the N.C. Division of Water Quality Rapid Response Team, said he does not dispute the count. He and team member Maverick Raber were also on the water Wednesday. They looked at the situation on Monday with water quality personnel from Pamlico County but had been constrained for consistent counting by staff limitations. 

 “We are still counting fish,” Green said. “The fish reported dying in New Bern are continuing to die. It is going to be a very large number. In the area of New Bern, it is as severe as I’ve ever seen it.

“We are taking a look at what is continuing to occur out here. We thought we were at the end and just found more. We don’t have anything conclusive yet but when we get back and calculate by our methods, we will come back with a number for the last 48 hours only. We won’t have numbers for the entire kill.”

Baldwin said the smell on the river is awful.

"You are going to have to see this to believe it,” he said.

Large numbers of dead fish have been reported in the water and along the shore from the railroad trestle in New Bern on the Neuse and Trent rivers, all the way to Slocum Creek south of Carolina Pines.

Baldwin said that as many as 4 million dead fish were seen in Northwest Creek, and boats were traveling to Brices Creek to check the status there.

 “What we are seeing today is not just dead ones on the surface but those swimming under the water,” Baldwin said. “We see them as they give up.”

Dove, now retired, was the first lower Neuse riverkeeper. He lives on the Neuse River in Carolina Pines.

“I would like people to get out of the house and walk down to Union Point and see this for themselves,” Dove said. “This isn’t anything natural.

“We’re starting to see a few fish show up with sores now. I don’t think this fish kill is anywhere near over.”

He said foundation volunteers are “counting fish the way the Division of Water Quality taught us to do it. It’s a rough number, but it will rival the one in 1995 which has been considered the second worst.”

Green and Baldwin attribute the kill to a lack of dissolved oxygen in the water, like a large Aug. 21 fish kill.

Green said the division is trying to rule out any other causes.

"We’re trying to be as comprehensive as we can,” he said.