The heat wave baking the Bay Area is having a deadly impact at a popular lake in Fremont.
The scorching temperatures have killed off hundreds of fish in Central Park's Lake Elizabeth, an 83-acre waterway that only runs about 4 to 5 feet deep.
The city sees fish in the lake die around this time every year, but on Wednesday crews realized they were seeing many more dead carp, catfish and trout floating to the surface.
The public noticed as well.
"We just kept on noticing something in the water," Steven Antonio James of Fremont said. "As we walked and walked, we realized it was fish. It just piled up. So many, especially towards the entrance where the water exits."
City officials said they made a call Thursday morning to a water expert who confirmed what they feared.
"These fish are not used to these excessive temperatures," Fremont Community Services Director Kim Beranek said. "The excessive temperatures are causing the water oxygen levels to deplete, and therefore they aren’t able to use the oxygen sufficiently that is remaining in the water. That's causing them basically to suffocate."
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The heat is also aggravating another problem. Geese that usually journey to Fremont are coming in bigger numbers and earlier due to wildfires in Canada, adding more waste pollution in the water.
As of Thursday afternoon, crews were cleaning up the dead fish they came across and pumping in fresh water to increase oxygen levels.
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The city will continue its cleanup and water pumping operation for the next several days or until the heat wave ends while also continuing its short-term and long-term studies on how to improve the lake’s water quality conditions. The city said its hopes to update that progress by the fall.
