Hundreds of dead fish found in Berkeley County waterway. The cause is unknown

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – What is causing hundreds of fish to die in one Berkeley County waterway? A viewer reached out to News 2 with the concern.

Hundreds of dead fish were found in the weeds near the freshwater portion of the Bushy Park Boat Landing.

“I don’t know for sure. We’ve seen it in the past, but not in abundance as so,” said Gene Coward, a local fisherman. “We don’t know whether it’s the oxygen in the water, it’s the heat, or we’ve had all this rain in the last few weeks. I’m not an expert in this field, I just try to catch the fish and put them in the boat.”

Coward spent part of the day fishing with his son. He took News 2’s Raymond Owens out on the water to see the dead fish. Everywhere you looked in the water, there were dead fish.

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources said someone had reported the fish to them as well. They are investigating to learn more.

“I would say hundreds of them. Just pushed up into the grass, I mean floating around- so really don’t know. The tide is going out now as we speak, so it had to happen at a time when it was high tide apparently,” said Coward.

DNR officials say one of their regional biologists investigated this kill Friday morning to try to figure out the cause. They will get us additional information about this investigation soon.

“Well, they’ll do what they can do, and they’re good at what they do. I’m sure they will have someone to program into it and maybe do an autopsy on the fish,” Coward added.

Count on 2 for updates as we get more information from officials about the dead fish.