I would like to complain about the large number of fish dying off on Vaseux Lake in the past month. We have seen for almost a month now a constant dying off of fish on all properties on Sundial Rd. We are finding dead fish on our lawn and they are seen constantly floating throughout the lake on a daily basis.

The above fish pictured above were picked up within 5 to 10 minutes in front of my property on the 1st May 2016.

This dying of perch is a real concern, I have put the 17 dead fish in our fridge so test could be done by the Ministry to find out why this is happening. When canoeing on the lake our neighbours have observed perch dying swimming upside and they had over a dozen fish dead near their property a few weeks ago.

The large number of dead fish on such few properties lead us to believe that there is a large dying off of fish happening on Vaseux lake and the Ministry should take this seriously.

Norm Gaumont

Publisher: Hopefully the perch will be tested but…… this is spring run off (freshet) – lots of new water into the system, lots of silt. Dead fish in a lake is not uncommon depending on a lot of factors – heat, juveniles vs adults.

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About 2 weeks ago we found 22 dead fish in sizes varying from very small up to 10 inches long along the shore of our property and our neighbour’s’ property. Mark collected the fish and called fish and wildlife out of concern as we have never had dead fish in those numbers before on our beach (we’ve owned the property for 4 years and questioned other long term neighbours about it, some who have been here for 40 years). Mark spoke to a wildlife officer on a Sunday about the fish and also mentioned our concern regarding brown algae that appeared in the lake last summer and fall. The fellow who answered the phone was helpful and asked all the usual questions regarding possible pollutants in the water, etc. We were told that someone would call us back during normal business hours (Mon to Fri). Nobody called us back. Since then we have found occasional dead fish on our shore, some as large as 10 to 12 inches, and I’ve also seen fish upside down floundering in various parts of the lake while kayaking, which I’ve never seen before and I kayak a lot. We’re not sure if the dead fish is normal and/or if the brown algae is something we should be concerned about.

Julie Martineau