Grand River Dam News Release - Fish Kill

GRDA Lake Patrol investigating fish kill of nearly 400

Vinita OK­ According to the Grand River Dam Authority Lake Patrol, a major fish kill discovered this weekend on Grand Lake following a large bass tournament, is a major cause of concern and has prompted the patrol to launch a thorough investigation.

"This is outrageous behavior," said GRDA Chief Executive Officer Kevin Easley about the incident which resulted in dead bass littering the shoreline. "GRDA is prepared to take quick and decisive action to stop this in the future."

GRDA Lake Patrol Chief Bruce Smith said Lake Patrolman Shawn Allred discovered several bass floating in the water near Patricia Island on Saturday. That prompted a closer look, and by Sunday evening, Smith estimates the patrol pulled as many as 400 dead bass out of the lake.

"This is certainly one of the worst fish kills we’ve seen," said Smith. "Combined with another kill discovered in early June after a tournament and it amounts to over nearly bass lost in a month’s time."

Smith said the fish kill was discovered about the time the Central ProAm Association’s weekend Grand Lake Pro Am bass tournament, which launched out of Martin’s Landing Resort, was wrapping up.

"This was a large tournament," said Smith, "and it appears sufficient steps were not taken by tournament organizers to protect the fish during weigh-ins. We’re estimating right now that over half the fish caught in this tournament died."

According to Dr. Darrell Townsend, GRDA’s ecosystems management superintendent, proper "weigh-in" protocol is a must in order to protect fish during tournaments. Sometimes, in locations such as Martin’s Landing, where the water may be too shallow and too hot to release the fish back in from the weigh-in site, a storage tank has to be used, said Townsend. Fish are placed there until they can be moved back to more open waters. However, Townsend said such tanks need to be properly aerated and oxygenated, using external tanks and monitored with dissolved oxygen probes. Also, he said, release tanks should only hold a maximum of one pound of fish per gallon of water. While the Central ProAm tournament did use a release tank, Smith said some of the fish kill could have been the result of overfilling that tank.

"There could have been as much as 1,300 pounds of fish in a 900 gallon tank," said Smith. "Also, long lines at weigh-ins can really be a problem. Those fish shouldn’t be in the bag for more than ten minutes but sometimes, fishermen have to wait 30 or more minutes to weigh in at a large tournament."


The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation was also contacted about the fish kill and did come to the scene as well. However, they failed to find any violations "which was particularly disturbing to me," said Easley, "especially when you consider they do have a formula for calculating fines on these type of incidents. Therefore, GRDA will take action."

Even as the GRDA Lake Patrol continues to look into the incident, Easley said GRDA’s "action" would be steps to prevent any similar incidents from taking place in the future. "We can do something about this and we will," he said, "there’s no reason this had to happen."