The drought is hammering fields, pastures, the Ogallala Aquifer, and Galveston Bay? StateImpact Texas reported researchers suspect drought is causing the massive fish die off. Millions of shad have washed ashore recently.
Heather Biggs is a biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife. She says it’s “very common to have fish kills within tributaries throughout the bay system due to low dissolved oxygen.”
Biggs went on to say the cause of the low oxygen is the drought. Lack of rainwater runoff into Galveston Bay results in oxygen-depleted water.
“When you have more runoff, you have more turbidity in the water, and you have more mixing in the water and so you have more oxygen,” Biggs said.
The U.S. Geological Survey says fish kills will likely become more common in Texas due to climate change.
