Conservation News
Conservation officials want solution to Bagnell Dam fish kills
The Missouri Department of Conservation says fish kills are avoidable.
LAKE OZARK, Mo. -- As a fish kill at Lake of the Ozarks stretches into its second week, officials with the Missouri Department of Conservation say they are looking forward to working with AmerenUE and determining a solution to this serious problem.
Anglers alerted the Conservation Department to the fish kill early the week of May 19. Hundreds of mutilated fish, including paddlefish up to 40 pounds, were turning up below Bagnell Dam each day. Some of the fish were chopped up, apparently after being sucked into power generating turbines. Others showed injuries that they might have suffered when they plunged over the dam's floodgates or were caught in turbulent water below the dam.
About three-quarters of the game fish destroyed so far have been paddlefish. The Osage River system is one of a handful in the world where the paddlefish survives, thanks to captive rearing and annual stocking by the Conservation Department. The program sustains a fish species that otherwise would disappear in Missouri, not to mention a popular sport fishery worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to the state annually.
"We have been finding paddlefish for a week and a half that show signs of having come through the turbines at Bagnell Dam," said Conservation Department Fisheries Program Supervisor Bill Turner, "and we continue to find them. That continuing loss certainly will affect paddlefish numbers in Lake of the Ozarks. Those killed below the dam are going to affect fishing in the lower Osage River. Missouri taxpayers and fishing permit holders contribute much to sustaining this paddlefish population, and it's the Conservation Department's job to help businesses develop reasonable measures to avoid killing them."
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