Fish die-off reported at Lake San Antonio in Monterey County
A large fish die-off event hit Lake San Antonio on the Fourth of July, according to California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Zachary Crum. Biologists are still investigating the incident, but they suspect that extreme heat caused algae to bloom in the lake — consuming most of the oxygen in the water and suffocating the fish. “Algal blooms produce oxygen through photosynthesis during the day when sunlight is available, but algae will consume large amounts of oxygen at night when cellular respiration is occurring in the absence of sunlight,” Crum wrote in an email to The Tribune. “This can lead to lethally low dissolved oxygen levels in reservoirs, which can essentially cause fish to suffocate.”