Dead fish floating in Brownsville resacas

Brownsville city offficials believe last week’s frigid weather led to the deaths of dozens of fish found in a resaca behind Dean Porter Park and Palm Boulevard, and other resacas in the city. (Laura B. Martinez/The Brownsville Herald)

A Brownsville resident woke up to an unsightly sight Wednesday morning. A resaca behind his home was filled with dead fish and lots of them.

“I came out … to find many dead fish as a result of last week’s freeze. The wind is blowing from the south so they accumulated at the bank across from the Children’s Museum,” the concerned citizen wrote in an email to The Brownsville Herald accompanied with a photo of the dead fish.

Dozens of dead fish were spotted floating in the resaca located behind Palm Boulevard and Dean Porter Park Wednesday afternoon. Large birds were spotted munching on the dead animals.

Felipe Romero, director of communications and marketing for the City of Brownsville, stated in an email that the city began receiving calls of dead fish in the resacas on Tuesday. He said the city’s Public Works Department has been assigned to collect the dead fish and dispose of them in the city landfill.

Brownsville city offficials believe last week’s frigid weather led to the deaths of dozens of fish found in a resaca behind Dean Porter Park and Palm Boulevard, and other resacas in the city. (Laura B. Martinez/The Brownsville Herald)

“With the recent extreme weather conditions, we received last week, many of the fish in the resacas froze and died. When the resacas do not have enough depth, it is hard for the fish to find deeper (warmer) waters to survive the extreme conditions,” Romero wrote.

A Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife biologist said last week that reports of fish kills from the Mexico border north to Port O’Connor were starting to trickle in.

“We are starting to receive reports and we are starting to conduct assessments in the bay systems,” Alex Nunez, a regional biologist for TPWD who is on the Kills and Spills Region 4 team, said last Monday. “We’ve got reports of Matagorda Bay down south to the U.S.-Mexico border. Pretty much Matagorda Bay south to the Lower Laguna.”


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