Bunker fish kill

Large schools of Atlantic Menhaden, known as bunker fish, are aggregating in the Peconic River in downtown Riverhead and east to the CR 105 bridge and Meeting House Creek. Low dissolved oxygen levels in the river are causing a die-off.

Mahogany tide, responsible for last year’s historic bunker fish kills, is back in the Peconic River this spring, already matching last year's record levels despite cool water temperatures, and turning local waterways a murky reddish-brown.

With unusually large numbers of bunker fish appearing in the Peconic River this spring, commercial fishermen will be allowed to net bunker in an effort to prevent the massive bunker kills seen last year, thanks to a ruling announced today by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Riverhead's popular cardboard boat races, held in the Peconic River each June have bene postponed to Aug. 23, due to the recent massive fish kills and resulting poor water quality, which prompted an advisory from county health officials yesterday.

In the wake of the two massive bunker kills that left tens of thousands of dead fish floating on local waterways and amassing on...

Contractors removed more than 10,000 pounds of dead bunker fish from downtown waters today, Supervisor Sean Walter said this afternoon.

As complaints begin to flow in about the tide of dead fish washing ashore on Flanders Bay beaches, local officials are making plans to remove at least the biggest piles of fish carcasses from local beaches, including the county park.

Dead bunker continue to wash ashore on the beaches of Flanders Bay in Riverhead and are now appearing east of there, along Peconic Bay...

Town hopes fishermen with drag net capabilities can remove live bait fish from the bay before they all die off because oxygen levels in the water are too low to sustain life.