Visitors arriving at the pond at Lions Family Park were met with an unusual sight, hundreds of dead fish lining the shoreline of South Pond.
Matt Wheeler, the Laurel Public Works director, noted that similar occurrences have happened several times over the years.
Watch drone footage of the pond here:
The city was alerted to the fish die-off Wednesday evening and issued a warning on social media advising caution for pond visitors.
"There's no fresh water that comes into the pond and there's also no outlet for the pond. And for lack of a better term, I would say that the water gets pretty stagnant when it's hot out," Wheeler said. "I would assume it's temperature-related, but that's an uneducated guess."
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) officials attribute the die-off to a combination of shallow and stagnant water and changing temperatures, after assessing the pond on Thursday.
"Typically when it's sunny, a beautiful day like we have today, aquatic plants will be photosynthesizing and producing oxygen," Chrissy Webb with FWP said. "When we have cloudy days or when it's nighttime, those aquatic plants are not photosynthesizing. They're actually respiring and they are consuming oxygen and that takes up available oxygen for things like fish in the pond. And because Laurel Pond is such a small, shallow body of water, those changes can happen pretty fast."
Despite the event, many fish were still observed swimming in the pond.
"This is certainly not an event where we lost, you know, every individual fish in the reservoir," Webb said. "There is some cloudiness in the pond right now that some folks have been commenting on. And we don't believe at this time that that has anything to do with the fish die off."
While the city of Laurel strongly advises against swimming in the pond, FWP confirmed there is no current risk to humans or pets. Webb said to report dead fish at https://fwp.mt.gov/sickfish.
