Thousands of Fish Dying at Lake Elsinore : Ecology: The stench has angered residents and is driving away tourists. The die-off is a natural event but is the worst since 1972.

Tens of thousands of fish are dying in Lake Elsinore, turning the popular Riverside County boating spot into a smelly bouillabaisse and angering residents and business owners dependent on the region’s summer tourist trade.

Biologists say that fish die-offs--which occur when rising water temperatures promote the growth of algae that rob fish of oxygen--are a natural phenomenon at many of Southern California’s inland lakes.

But this year’s event is the worst at Lake Elsinore since 1972 and threatens to wipe out most of the lake’s fishery. Already, more than 225 tons of dead carp, catfish and largemouth bass have washed ashore, and thousands more fish can be seen bobbing on the lake’s surface.

“Carp and catfish can survive better than most other fish species in oxygen-depleted water,” said Mike Giusti, a fisheries biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game. “So if they’re dying, then we’ve got a real problem out there.”

A cleanup force of 100, wielding pitchforks and skip loaders, is working dawn to dusk to clear beaches of the smelly carcasses and bury them near the shoreline. Other workers are cruising the murky, algae-choked lake in boats, using hand-held nets to scoop up floating fish half a dozen at a time.

“It’s not a terrific assignment,” said Don Monahan, superintendent of the Lake Elsinore State Recreation Area. “When the wind blows the wrong way, the smell is bad. These guys are definitely to be commended for the job they’re doing.”

But the cleanup effort has done little to placate lakeshore residents and business owners, who say the overpowering stench of rotting fish--intensified by daily temperatures in excess of 100 degrees--is making life miserable and driving vacationers away.

“That smell is just repulsive,” said Pam Blake, who works at an RV and camping park on the lake’s northern shore. “It got so bad last night it kept us awake.”

“It’s disgusting,” added Carole Shackelford, who runs an RV park called Weekend Paradise on the lake’s western shore. “The customers are complaining, and they’ve got a right to. But what can we do?”

At the Elsinore West Marina, an RV and boat launch facility, a 5-foot band of dead fish coated the beach Thursday, with the corpses piled “two or three high” in some spots, Manager Frances Whitney said. The problem, she said, is “killing our tourist trade.”

On Wednesday, a party of German tourists vacationing at the lake-front marina demanded their money back and left in disgust.

“This thing is hitting my boss in the pocketbook,” Whitney said.

That fact is not lost on the folks down at the Elsinore Valley Chamber of Commerce. Jim Rhodes, the chamber’s first vice president, said that while the area “doesn’t live totally by tourism,” the fish affair is “certainly a concern.”

“The smell is unpleasant and I’m sure it’s cutting into the camping and the water skiing,” Rhodes said. “But they’re cleaning it up. . . . It’s really only a short-run thing.”

Some residents have complained that the city should have known that trouble was looming--there were predictions of a fish die-off last year--and taken steps to avert it, perhaps by pumping water into the lake.

Lake Elsinore Mayor Gary Washburn responded that officials are “working as hard as we can on our lake stabilization project to ensure this kind of thing doesn’t keep happening.”

The lake stabilization project, in the works for more than a decade, is a $65-billion effort that includes a levee, a pumping system to pour ground water into the lake and an aeration system designed to prevent oxygen depletion. Sponsors say the project will maintain the lake’s depth at a level that is optimal for water sports and fish alike.

The level of Lake Elsinore, a natural sink fed by the San Jacinto River watershed, has been dropping steadily for several years, mostly because of the drought. The lake is now just 8 feet at its deepest point. The water temperature is 84 degrees.

In May, the shrinking lake retreated so far that it left the docks of most shoreline residents and campgrounds beached. That forced all boaters to launch from the state park, where they must wait in long lines and pay a fee.

The fish, however, are in a worse predicament. When the water level dips, the temperature rises, promoting the growth of algae, plankton and aquatic plants. The plants in turn steal oxygen from the water, and the fish suffocate.

The recent string of cloudy days compounded the problem, biologists say, because with sunshine, the plants release oxygen as part of the photosynthesis process.

“There are always a few fish that manage to survive, but there’s no question it will take a long time for them to repopulate the lake,” said Giusti of the Fish and Game department.

If most of the fishery is lost, ornithologists say it could have a minor effect on migratory birds that stop off at the inland waterway.

“If the smaller fish that most of the wintering birds eat are lost, then it could have some impact,” said Robert McKernan, president of the San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society. “But because Elsinore is so disturbed, by recreation and wave action, there are very few breeding birds that use the lake.”

Although the typically large crowds of summertime lake users have been thinned by word of the fish deaths, some boaters and jet-skiers were undeterred by the spectacle and continued to whiz about in water that one park ranger likened to spinach soup.

Watching them leaves Shackelford incredulous: “I wouldn’t go near that lake, and I certainly won’t let my son go in it,” she said.

There seemed no chance of that. Young Kristopher Shackelford, asked his opinion of the situation, said: “It stinks, it’s gooey, it’s sick.”