Biologist suspects heavy rain caused fish kill in Suffolk lake

SUFFOLK

The near total fish kill that struck a 50-acre lake over the weekend was likely caused by a heavy rainfall the night before, a state biologist said Tuesday.

The fish in Sleepy Lake, near U.S. 17, Bridge Road in northern Suffolk, likely died after the rain on Friday dumped cold water into the lake after a long hot spell, said Chad Boyce, a fisheries biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Sleepy Lake is shallow and its bottom is covered in organic matter, which takes up oxygen when it breaks down, Boyce said. The heavy, cool rain would have displaced the oxygen-depleted water near the lake’s bottom, spelling trouble for the fish above, he said.

Boyce said he saw “hundreds and hundreds” of fish floating on the lake when he arrived Monday, even after residents spent hours on Sunday trying to clean up.

“It looked close to a complete kill of the adult fish in the lake,” Boyce said.

Fish kills are known to happen in the summer. Boyce said the Sleepy Lake event “is really not that uncommon.”