EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — Visitors to Ascarate Park were met with a troubling sight when large numbers of dead fish surfaced in a pond at the park in South-Central El Paso.
People who came to the duck pond Friday morning said they were shocked to see hundreds of dead fish floating in the water behind the pond area.
The fish were visible above the waterline, and people who frequent the pond for fishing and leisure said it is not something they see often.
Isaac Arenas, who has lived in El Paso for 10 years and fishes at the park, said the situation has also affected fishing in recent days.
“That is nothing that I’ve ever seen in the 10 years I’ve lived in El Paso….there is a big shift; they are not biting, usually we can catch 3-4 in an hour, we always catch something in the past week since the storm, and I’ve only caught one, I’ve been here since this morning, haven’t caught one yet,” Arenas said.
El Paso city crews cleaned up most of the dead fish after they were found on Friday.
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Felipe Perez said he believed the cleanup should have happened sooner. “The guys around here, mainly crews, should have already cleaned them up instead of us seeing that… they have plenty of workers; if they are using nets they should be; if there’s nobody there right now what’s the other guys doing,” Perez said.
The incident comes as El Paso County commissioners consider the possibility of removing the duck pond over concerns about water quality and water conservation.
Those discussions have drawn pushback from local fishermen concerned about what would happen if the duck pond is removed.
No decision has been made, and commissioners are expected to decide by the end of the year.
County officials were contacted about the dead fish, and they said they were working on a request for information.
Even after the initial discovery, a few fish could still be seen trapped near weedy areas along the edge of the lake near the golf course.
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