ANGOLA, N.Y. - Thousands of dead fish are washing up on the Lake Erie shoreline in the Buffalo area, but state Department of Environmental Conservation officials say it's nothing to be alarmed about.
Residents living along a stretch of shoreline in the Angola area of the town of Evans tell YNN cable television news that the fish jump out of the water and die by the thousands along the beaches lining the southern Erie County shoreline. Dead fish are also being found farther north to where the lake empties into the Niagara River at Buffalo.
DEC officials say the gizzard shad typically die in large numbers each winter and don't surface until the lake temperature begins warming up in the early spring.
Another large gizzard shad die off occurred on Lake Erie during the winter of 2011.
