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Something's Killing the Shad, Carp and Crappie

Tuesday, Jul 28, 2009 | Updated 8:07 AM PST

Thousands of fish have died at Lake Elsinore.

Thousands of fish have died at Southern California's Lake Elsinore because of a lack of oxygen in the water.

Lake and Aquatic Resources director Pat Kilroy says the situation has been caused by hot days and nights at the lake in Riverside County.

The die-off began early Sunday and city crews are cleaning thousands of shad, carp and crappie from the shoreline.

The Lake Elsinore and San Jacinto Watersheds Authority says scientists are studying the lake's oxygen and algae levels to try to determine what led to the die-offs.

The authority says the deaths were far fewer than what would have occurred without the millions of dollars in improvements that have been made to the lake in the past decade.