Birds, fish die en masse in Arkansas

AP

An estimated 100,000 fish have died in the northwest of Arkansas, the same state where up to 5000 dead birds recently fell from the sky.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said it suspected disease was to blame for the death of the drum fish, which floated in the water and lined the banks of a 30-kilometre stretch of the Arkansas River near Ozark, about 200km northwest of Little Rock, CNN reported on Sunday.

Ozark is about 200km west of the town of Beebe, where game wardens were trying to find out why up to 5000 blackbirds fell from the sky just before midnight on New Year's Eve, CNN said.
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Keith Stephens from the game and fish commission said fish kills occurred every year but the size of the latest one was unusual, and suggested some sort of disease was to blame.

"The fish kill only affected one species of fish," he told CNN.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/birds-fish-die-en-masse-in-arkansas-20110103-19dda.html