Are These Dead Fish in Highland Park Collateral Damage from the West Nile Virus Spraying?

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photo by Jeff Levine

Hundreds of dead fish in Highland Park have washed up near Turtle Creek and some folks  are connecting the dead fish to Dallas County’s spraying efforts last week to fight West Nile Virus.

But Sheri Brown at the Highland Park Town Hall says it has nada to do with the spraying, but was caused by the fierce storm we had on Saturday evening, which resulted in electrical outages, flash-flooding, and now, apparently, dead fish. That storm made water levels in the creek rise and fall rapidly, washing the fish onto shore where they died when the water receded, kind of like a tsunami. And according to a report in the Dallas Morning News, this also happened last month pre-spraying when it was so dang hot: hot water changes the oxygen levels in the creek, killing off fish.

Meantime, I am looking for signs that my precious geckos are still OK in Preston Hollow. I love geckos: they eat roaches and mosquitoes and may well have saved us from West Nile. As of Saturday, they were still out there and looking fit.

As are our mosquitoes: on Sunday they were still biting me.

Candy Evans, founder and publisher of CandysDirt.com, is one of the nation’s leading real estate reporters.

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  1. Dave Keys on August 21, 2012 at 1:39 pm

    Fish are susceptible to a lot of things in their environment. I would vote for the oxygen levels as most likely culprit. Since these incidences began prior to any spraying that seems like a very unlikely cause for this one as well. Lots of odd things happen with small fish including cases where storms with high winds have swept up multitudes of them at sea and then dumped them into an urban area– mystifying residents a considerable distance inland.

  2. Dave Keys on August 21, 2012 at 1:39 pm

    Fish are susceptible to a lot of things in their environment. I would vote for the oxygen levels as most likely culprit. Since these incidences began prior to any spraying that seems like a very unlikely cause for this one as well. Lots of odd things happen with small fish including cases where storms with high winds have swept up multitudes of them at sea and then dumped them into an urban area– mystifying residents a considerable distance inland.

  3. Karen Eubank on August 21, 2012 at 1:58 pm

    I swear the locusts were screaming the other night. They were louder than I've ever heard, then suddenly silent. Think the spray silenced them…forever?

  4. Karen Eubank on August 21, 2012 at 1:58 pm

    I swear the locusts were screaming the other night. They were louder than I've ever heard, then suddenly silent. Think the spray silenced them…forever?

  5. dh watson on August 22, 2012 at 8:01 am

    It's funny how ignorance is so politically correct, facts and knowledge are rare, and everyone has an opinion, whether educated and informed or not! I trust the scientists and engineers, not emotional rantings and speculation thrown out as true.

  6. dh watson on August 22, 2012 at 8:01 am

    It's funny how ignorance is so politically correct, facts and knowledge are rare, and everyone has an opinion, whether educated and informed or not! I trust the scientists and engineers, not emotional rantings and speculation thrown out as true.

  7. TG on August 22, 2012 at 9:24 am

    Well, as I commented on the Dallas Morning News story, who exactly is Sheri Brown and what makes her an expert on the fish population? I'm not saying that there might not be more than one reason for those fish to be dead, but the Dallas Morning News decided up front that they were going to support the spraying, then moved forward with that agenda.

    They posted this particular story without any kind of verification other than "some lady from Highland Park said so". Then, after the fact, they sneakily inserted a quote from a Texas Parks & Wildlife person to make it look like their story had an expert opinion.

    For those reasons, I might step back from repeating the so-called facts of this particular story; the Dallas Morning News is not a credible source on this topic.

  8. TG on August 22, 2012 at 9:24 am

    Well, as I commented on the Dallas Morning News story, who exactly is Sheri Brown and what makes her an expert on the fish population? I'm not saying that there might not be more than one reason for those fish to be dead, but the Dallas Morning News decided up front that they were going to support the spraying, then moved forward with that agenda.

    They posted this particular story without any kind of verification other than "some lady from Highland Park said so". Then, after the fact, they sneakily inserted a quote from a Texas Parks & Wildlife person to make it look like their story had an expert opinion.

    For those reasons, I might step back from repeating the so-called facts of this particular story; the Dallas Morning News is not a credible source on this topic.

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