Millions of Fish Wash up on New Jersey Shore Causing Large Scale Bio-Hazard Cleanup

8/26/2016 (Permalink)

This week millions of fish washed up and died in creeks and waterways near a northern New Jersey shore town.  Crews estimated at first an amount in the hundreds of thousands of fish were killed but have since updated that count to more than a million. 

New Jersey environmental officials say the fish were probably chased into the bay and upstream by other fish in the ocean.  Once they were there and unable to escape they died due to low levels of oxygen in the water.  Officials commented “This is primarily a natural phenomenon, but it is exacerbated by polluted runoff, including fertilizers from lawns, which is why preserving stream corridors and buffers is important”.  Highest numbers of dead fish have been found in Waackaack Creek.   Crews have cleaned the dead fish and taken them to Monmouth County Landfill. 

SERVPRO of Burlington / Mount Holly has completed bio-hazard cleanup training and is very knowledgeable when it comes to cleaning up an incident that involves the remains of animals, humans or other abnormal events that require special handling.