WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – More than a month after hundreds of dead fish turned up in Greenfield Lake, and experts say the cause is still murky.

“I think it’s going to be pretty difficult at this point to really figure out what exactly caused it, it’s been suspected that it was an algal bloom that caused it,” Rob Clark with Cape Fear River Watch said.

Rob Clark, the water quality programs manager at Cape Fear River Watch, says they do know that dissolved oxygen levels contributed to the fish kill, but they are uncertain if algal blooms were the culprit.

Dr. Michael Mallin is a research professor at UNCW and says since the kill, they’ve found two sources of contaminants in the water.

“My teams went out there and sampled, unfortunately, huge levels of fecal coliform bacteria coming in,” Mallin said. “So that’s really unhealthy for the water for human beings.”

Fecal coliform is tied to animal or even human waste and could point to some form of sewage leak.

Where it came from and the role it may have played is unknown and could remain that way, as none of the fish killed in May were taken in for further testing.

However, Clark says as caretakers of the lake, we all have an impact on what happens to it.

“We absolutely affect what happens in this lake,” Clark said. “We have a responsibility to mitigate our effects on the lake, including the effects that lead to these harmful algal blooms.”

Mallin says they’ve checked the water recently and the fecal coliform levels are back to normal.

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