Fish kill

Concern that the potential for another massive fish kill lingers, town officials discuss postponing for a month the annual cardboard boat race.

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.

Almost a year after the major fish kills in the Peconic Estuary last summer, bunker fish are being seen in large numbers in the river almost a month earlier than usual this spring.

About 300,000 bunker died of "mass asphyxiation" caused by nitrogen-fueled algal blooms in the Peconic River last summer, the study said.

A video Q&A explaining the bunker fish kills in western Flanders Bay and the Peconic River.

“It’s totally disgusting,” said Joanne Tyte, who lives on Howell Lane on the Peconic River. “The smell is so bad that we can’t even go outside."