Bill Cochran

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There are many terms used to describe the Shenandoah River: storied, scenic, classic, fabled, historic, pastoral and bass-rich.

Now you can add another one. Death.

From a glance, the easy flowing Shenandoah looks like the dream stream it’s always been as it winds through one of the most beautiful and history-rich valleys in the world. But beneath the sparkle is a curse, a cancer, an epidemic that has slaughtered bass and sunfish by the thousands, damaged the economy and made the hearts of people sad.

“The water quality situation on the Shenandoah is catastrophic,” said Urbie Nash, an environmentalist and avid angler and grouse hunter.

Gary Colins, a columnist, called what is happening a “fisheries ending event.”

“We may have lost half a million fish,” said Jeff Kelble, a former fishing guide.

This is the time of the year that the water warms and the Shenandoah’s renowned smallmouth bass and colorful redbreasted sunfish move shallow to spawn on beds of smooth stones. They have moved shallow, only now they are there not to create life, but to die. Many are belly-up. Others are stressed, their bodies, in some instances, riddled with lesions, parasites and mucus.

One angler floated a section of the river and reported “tons of dead and dying sunfish and many dead and dying smallmouth bass.”

The die-offs date back to at least 2003. In some sections of the river, baffled officials estimate that 80 percent of the mature bass and sunfish have died the past three years. Some guides have given up; anglers are staying away, tourism has been impacted.

Last season, a bit of hope occurred when anglers began catching gobs of juvenile bass. One group of four reported hooking and releasing about 200 bass under 6 inches during a few hours’ of effort. This was seen as a solid base to rebuild the stock.

Then late last month, when the temperatures rose and the water level dropped, more kills were encountered. Fish thought to have been spared for the future were under attack. Not just in the Shenandoah drainage, but also in the Cowpasture River, which is part of the James River drainage.

These aren’t your normal fish kills, the kind that can be traced to some toxic discharge. Scientists, who are working overtime, have no explanation as to what is behind the deaths, even after more than three years of investigation. There concerns flow deep in their conscious.

Fish are being sent to the veterinary lab at Virginia Tech, to the US. Geological Survey lab, in Leetown, W.Va., and to James Madison University for examination. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will begin testing river sediment this month. A diverse task force has been formed. The easy explanations have been ruled out.

All this will be the subject of a day-long Shenandoah Valley Pure Water Forum set for May 9, 8:30 a.m., at James Madison University.

In the meanwhile, the task force has asked the public to report dead and dying fish. Unfortunately, such sightings have become all too easy, as the soul of the river ebbs away in the last gasps of stalwart bass.