newjerseynewsroom.com

BY CHRIS RIGHTMIRE

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The movie “The Day After Tomorrow” depicted numerous, unpredictable effects of global warming upon humanity. While not as drastic as the effects portrayed in the movie, the death of thousands of Midwestern fish due to the heating up of streams may be one of them.

40,000 shovel-nosed sturgeons, tens of thousands of small and large mouth bass and channel catfish, as well as thousands of other fish were found dead by officials in Illinois last week. The biologists blamed the heat for the deaths of the fish, as well as threatening a state endangered species, the greater redhorse fish, according to the Associated Press.

The Fishery program supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Midwestern Region, Aaron Holdt, told NPR that while fish kills are common in the summertime, they seem more widespread this year.

The fish losses are having economic impacts, according to the AP, there were so many dead fish that the bodies clogged an intake screen near a power plant, lowering water levels to the point that the station had to shut down one of its generators.

Also, Iowa’s Department of Natural Resources said that the sturgeon found dead were worth about 10 million dollars because of their caviar production.

NASA scientist James Hansen said the temperatures that have killed the Midwestern fish had a 1 in 300 probability of occurence from 1950 to 1980. Now there is a 1 in 10 probability.

He told the Associated Press in an interview, “This is not scientific theory. We are now experiencing scientific fact."