Submitted photo A reader sent this photo of dead fish along the shoreline of Lake Milton. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio Division of Wildlife, said they are gizzard shad and were killed by the harsh winter conditions.

LAKE MILTON — Visitors to the lake might find a bit of an upsetting sight.

Several beachgoers over the weekend were startled to find the beach heavily littered with dead fish, but officials say it’s nothing unnatural.

Matt Wolfe, Fisheries Biologist for the Ohio Division of Wildlife, said the fish seen on the north shore, near the Mahoning Avenue ramp, are gizzard shad, and it is common to see them lying there after a heavy winter.

“We’ve not really seen that in the past couple winters, but when you get an actual winter like we’ve had, they tend to die off pretty heavily,” Wolfe said.

During winter, when ice covers the lake, life goes on underneath, but when oxygen levels drop, some of the wildlife also die, and gizzard shad are usually the first to go.

“These are the wimps of the fish world, and they die off very easily,” Wolfe said. “They are very susceptible to dying from handling stress and from low oxygen.”

Wolfe said the bacteria in the lake are beginning to awaken, which leads to the decomposition of algae and aquatic plants. That process can consume dissolved oxygen, reducing oxygen levels and leading to fish kills.

Fish kills also occur in the other three seasons, but the dissolved oxygen consumption occurs for slightly different reasons in fall, summer and spring. According to the ODW, fish like gizzard shad, sunfish and bass are less hardy than carp and catfish and are more likely to die.

Wolfe said the gizzard shad on the beach over the weekend most likely died as long as two months ago and are coming to the beach with the tide now that the ice has mostly melted.

“It’s entirely possible that we’ll see more in the next few weeks,” he said.

The death of the gizzard shad comes with some benefits, though, Wolfe said.

“It’s a bad thing from the perspective of the fish population, but it’s always a good thing from an angling perspective,” he said.

Gizzard shad are at the bottom of the food chain among lake fish, and the bass, bluegill and muskie all feed on them. If bait fish like gizzard shad die off more, the other fish will be hungrier and bite better during the spring and summer fishing season.

“They’re the number one prey food,” Wolfe said. “So, if your buffet is gone, you’re going to be hungry and look for other food sources, and from an angling point of view, you hope that other food source will be the anglers’ lures.”

Wolfe said the gizzard shad are not fit for human consumption.

“These are not fish people eat or a highly sought sport fish, they’re very mushy,” he said. “They mostly eat plankton and algae, so there’s none of that meaty texture.”

Tom Frank, Mahoning County wildlife officer with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said that while the gizzard shad aren’t what fishermen want, that doesn’t mean they’re not a food source on land, too, and that is why ODNR doesn’t need to clean up the mess.

“Generally speaking, nature takes care of it pretty quickly,” he said. “Raccoons will come in at night and within a couple weeks there will be nothing left on the beach.”

Wolfe said that if anyone is concerned about what fish they’re seeing on the beach, the ODW website can help them.