Vermont, US: Massive fish kill in Lake Champlain

© wcax

Quite a sight along the shores of Lake Champlain-- there's been a massive fish kill.

Alewives have washed ashore at the sandbar in Milton.

Vermont Fish and Wildlife biologists estimate that tens of thousands of the nonnative species have died due to stress caused by frigid temperatures.

Ice fishermen have been noticing Alewives popping through the ice in recent months. Now that the ice is melting, they're washing ashore. They've also been spotted in Georgia, Vt.

"Never seen nothing like this," said George St. Amour, a fisherman from Colchester. "One year on the ice there were a few that came up in the cracks, but nothing this tremendous ya' know, there's a lot of them though."

Biologists first discovered alewives in 2005 in Lake Champlain. This is the second major fish kill like this in Lake Champlain. The first one was in 2008. Biologists don't know for sure how the nonnative fish was introduced to the lake.