The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources is investigating a massive die-off of invasive Asian carp discovered Wednesday in the Cumberland River below Lake Barkley.
The fish kill is estimated to have impacted tens of thousands of the invasive silver carp over a 24-hour period. Specimens will be collected and taken to Kentucky State University for disease testing.
Evidence of the fish kill has been documented to the confluence with the Ohio River. Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley do not appear to be impacted at this time, Rister said.
The silver carp is one of four species of Asian carp that have spread throughout much of the Mississippi River basin after escaping from fish farms in the 1970s.