Cool water hammers sportfish

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Research Institute received nearly 80 reports of fish kills from through out the state after last week's cold snap. It will take weeks, if  not months, to fully appreciate the magnitude of the plummeting temperatures.

One of the hardest areas hit was around the Anclote Power Plant. Fish and manatees normally congregate near power plants because of the warm-water outflows, but if the plant is suddenly shut down, which happens from time to time, marine life cannot recover from the drastic change in temperature.

Most fish kills occur during the summer when the Red Tide is at its peak or heavy rains cause man-made pollutants to suddenly enter the ecosystem. In this case, the killer was Mother Nature.

Fish kills were reported from as far north as the Panhandle, which is rare since the fish up there have more time to get used to cooler water, all the way to South Florida. No species appeared spared. Anglers reported seeing dead snook, tarpon, pompano, jack crevalle to name just a few.

The only people who seemed to have benefited from the freeze were commercial fishermen who scooped up thousands of pounds of stunned ladyfish on the flats just south of the power plant. The pickings were so easy, one local fish house sent a tractor trailer north to help haul away the take, all perfectly legal, but all too sad.