{"id":427633,"date":"2026-09-06T01:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T01:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/427633\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T01:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T01:44:15","slug":"dead-fish-in-houston-waterways-wildlife-officials-say-thats-natural","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/427633\/","title":{"rendered":"Dead fish in Houston waterways? Wildlife officials say that&#8217;s natural"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788659053_500_default-image.png\" alt=\"Livestream\" class=\"livestream-poster-image\" data-v-b05d485a=\"\"\/>       <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">HOUSTON &#8211; If you&#8217;ve been seeing what seems like an unusual amount of dead fish in Houston-area waterways, Texas wildlife officials say the #1 suspect in this case is Mother Nature.<\/p>\n<p>   Why are there dead fish in Houston bayous? <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KRIV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">FOX 26 contacted the <a href=\"https:\/\/tpwd.texas.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD)<\/a> after being told about a noticeable amount of dead fish in Houston&#8217;s Brays Bayou.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">According to the department, this is believed to be a natural event that happens every year. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/weather\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The recent rainfall<\/a> brought a lot of stormwater to the waterways, which can disrupt the &#8220;distinct layers of dissolved oxygen&#8221; and affect the fish in the &#8220;safe layers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The TPWD calls incidents like this &#8220;low dissolved oxygen kills.&#8221; They&#8217;re common during the summer due to higher temps and less wind and rain, but storms can make them happen year-round.<\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/7swk1amdbjqo6iyv.jpg\" alt=\"Tropical Weather Forecast - Edouard rainfall + action in the Pacific\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-892ef6a8=\"\"\/>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/7swk1amdbjqo6iyv.jpg\" alt=\"Tropical Weather Forecast - Edouard rainfall + action in the Pacific\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"vod-poster-image vod-poster-image--embedded\" data-v-5173a8d8=\"\"\/>   <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The TPWD isn&#8217;t completely ruling out the fish kills being from pollution or disease-causing <a href=\"https:\/\/libguides.mskcc.org\/infectiousdiseases\/pathogens\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">pathogens<\/a>, but they don&#8217;t believe it&#8217;s happening in Brays Bayou at this time.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">There is one fish kill in Brays Bayou that&#8217;s under investigation. The TWPD says it&#8217;s visiting the area to test the water quality, but they currently believe that this kill is also from stormwater.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/fish.png\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" width=\"932\" height=\"524\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\">Dead fish in Houston&#8217;s Brays Bayou on Sept. 5, 2026. <\/p>\n<p>  Is Brays Bayou safe? <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KRIV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">Why you should care:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The TWPD says Brays Bayou is part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tceq.texas.gov\/waterquality\/nonpoint-source\/projects\/buffalo-bayou-tmdl-impl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Buffalo Bayou Tidal watershed<\/a>, which is currently said to as &#8220;impaired.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The Houston-Galveston Area Council also says the surface water shows &#8220;elevated levels of fecal bacteria and nutrients.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Anyone who plans to fish in areas like Brays Bayou should check the <a href=\"https:\/\/tpwd.texas.gov\/regulations\/outdoor-annual\/fishing\/general-rules-regulations\/fish-consumption-bans-and-advisories\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">TPWD&#8217;s Fish Consumption Bans and Advisories<\/a> ahead of time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/environment\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Environment<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/us\/tx\/houston\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Houston<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/top-stories\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Top Stories<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON &#8211; If you&#8217;ve been seeing what seems like an unusual amount of dead fish in Houston-area waterways,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2327,56,58,57,223,2053,216,393],"class_list":["post-427633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-environment","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-tx","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}