Over the last week, the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources has received reports of a fish kill below Barkley Dam.
Biologists and other staff from Kentucky Fish and Wildlife have been on site multiple times to monitor the area and found that the majority of the dead fish are invasive Silver Carp. The dead fish began appearing early last week and many are still in the area.
Staff documented large schools of invasive Silver Carp immediately upstream of Barkley Dam, evidence of a seasonal migration pattern that Kentucky Fish & Wildlife and Murray State University have documented through telemetry data (tracking of tagged Silver Carp).
The Carp are being pulled through the turbines at the Dam as this is currently the only downstream flowing water at the dam. Due to this, most of the fish are headless or cut into sections. Silver carp kills have become a common occurrence in the spring below Barkley Dam over the past several years, and Kentucky Fish & Wildlife will continue to monitor the occurrence this spring.
Western Kentucky Fisheries photo.