State marine scientists are investigating a mass die-off of catfish along the Baldwin County coastline, after hundreds of the fish washed ashore in the Weeks Bay area south of Fairhope over the past two weeks.
Vernon Minton, director of the Alabama Marine Resources Division in Gulf Shores, said his office has fielded a growing number of reports from residents and anglers who have found dead and dying hardhead catfish along local shorelines. Many of the fish have visible lesions or scars, prompting state officials to caution the public against eating any catfish showing signs of disease.
Minton is urging anyone who finds diseased catfish to bring the fish to the Marine Resources Division office for testing rather than disposing of them, so biologists can examine the animals and try to pin down the cause of the outbreak. Samples collected from the die-off are expected to undergo laboratory analysis in the coming weeks.
Hardhead catfish are a common, hardy species in the shallow bays, bayous and river mouths along Alabama’s Gulf Coast, and sudden die-offs among the species are not unheard of. Minton said he suspects the current outbreak may be linked to the same pathogen that caused a similar, much larger fish kill along the Alabama coast in the mid-1990s, when thousands of catfish died in a comparable event.
Fish kills tied to viral or bacterial outbreaks tend to spread quickly in warm, shallow coastal waters, where fish are already under stress from heat and low oxygen levels. Marine Resources officials say they will continue to monitor Weeks Bay and surrounding waters for signs that the die-off is spreading to other species or other stretches of the Baldwin County coast.
In the meantime, state officials are asking residents who boat, fish or swim in the area to report any additional sightings of dead or diseased fish to the Marine Resources Division, and to avoid handling or eating fish that appear sick. Health officials note that properly cooked fish without visible lesions generally continue to pose no known risk, but they recommend erring on the side of caution until the cause of the die-off is identified.
The investigation comes as Alabama Marine Resources continues its broader monitoring of coastal fish populations, work that helps the state track the long-term health of Mobile Bay, Weeks Bay and the Gulf waters that support both commercial and recreational fishing across Baldwin County.