Reporting a Fish Kill
If you believe a fish kill has occurred, contact the nearest DNR Field Office or Fisheries Office. Provide the name of the stream, the location of the kill, and any other conditions or observations that may aid in the investigation of the cause and source of the fish kill.
Fish Kill Assessment and Monitoring
All fish kill investigative reports submitted to the Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment (WQMA) section are entered into DNR’s online fish kill database - Iowa DNR Fishkill Database. The fish kill database includes fish kills from 1981 to present.
The WQMA section uses fish kills to complete the Aquatic Life Designated Use assessments in the biennial Integrated Report (IR). A fish kill can affect the IR aquatic life assessment of the waterbody and can potentially cause the waterbody to be listed on the 303(d)/Impaired Waters List.
DNR’s WQMA section routinely conducts follow-up fish monitoring on waterbodies that have had a fish kill. Those sampling data are housed in DNR’s online Biological Monitoring and Assessment Database (BioNet). Search the BioNet sites using the “Fishkill Followup” project tag to access the data. In addition, the WQMA section produced a 2002 report assessing the status of biological conditions in fish kill streams and evaluating recovery of fish populations. That report can be found here: Stream Fishkill Follow-up Report.