Arizona lake closes indefinitely to visitors after all of its fish die

Arizona officials have indefinitely closed a popular lake to visitors after its entire population of fish died recently.

The recreation and wildlife department that maintains San Carlos Lake said in a Facebook statement on Friday that drought conditions as well as water released from a dam there “resulted in a major fish kill affecting approximately 100% of the fish population”.

According to the statement, decomposing fish pose health hazards to people who try to fish or swim in the human-made reservoir. Officials therefore said they would not allow fishing, harvesting or possessing fish, or any associated activities at San Carlos Lake, “until further notice”.

The San Carlos recreation and wildlife department added that it would “continue to monitor conditions and provide updates as they become available.

“We ask all visitors to respect the closure and avoid the affected area for their safety.”

Video footage and images provided to the Arizona news outlet KSAZ showed the lake’s surface covered with floating fish carcasses.

The Arizona news website AZFamily.com reports that San Carlos Lake counts on 158 miles (255km) of shoreline and boasts state records for largemouth bass, black crappie, bluegill, channel catfish and flathead fish. Officials are also known to stock it year-round with brown trout and rainbow trout, according to the outlet.

Formed by the Coolidge dam along the Gila River, the lake is within the San Carlos Apache tribal lands, according to Arizona’s state tourism office.

It is about 125 miles from Phoenix.

An X user identifying himself as a member of the San Carlos Apache tribe said tribal officials had lifted restrictions on the number of fish that could be kept by fishers in anticipation of lower water levels that were expected.

Under the lake closure announcement on Facebook, wone user lamented that the body of water had been “full almost three years ago”. “This is so heartbreaking!” they said.

A separate commenter said: “So sad. Lots of memories on that lake.”