More than 5,400 catfish were killed in the retention pond fish farm last weekend in front of the Charlotte County Jail.
The dead fish surfaced Sunday and a massive cleanup program by several inmates began Tuesday morning. The fish were netted out of the cages, put into a large Dumpster and hauled away.
"Charlotte County Government sub-contracted a company to clean the jail roof and at this time it is unknown what chemicals were used, but it appears whatever they used was responsible for the fish kill," said Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Cameron. "The water used in the roof-cleaning process drained into the retention pond and killed all the catfish in the cages as well as native fish in the county-stocked pond. There were also some dead fingerling catfish in the growing tanks that gets its water from the pond."
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More than 5,400 catfish were killed in the retention pond fish farm last weekend in front of the Charlotte County Jail.
