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If you've been smelling the odor of dead fish at a park in Scottsdale, you're not alone and yes, there's a reason for it.
The City of Scottsdale revealed the fishy smell at Chaparral Park is caused by a "large population fish kill," FOX 10 reports. It's an occurrence that happens around this time every year. The lake at Chaparral Park is stocked with 800 to 1,000 pounds of fish every two weeks between September and April and city officials have given a few reasons as to why these fish die in large amounts this time of year.
In addition to temperature, cloud cover, algae blooms and runoff, Phil Herskowitz, the park's operations supervisor, revealed two more factors. "They could have recently just stocked and some of the fish are injured in transit. That causes some of our die off," Herskowitz began. "The other one is a lot of people catch and release with all the great intentions of keeping the fish in the lake, and sometimes they suffered damages that they just cannot recover from."
Instead of the "die off" happening in the summer, Scottsdale said they avoid filling the ponds during summer months to prevent it from happening.
Local residents complained about the fishy smell.
"It's just not a pleasant smell you want to walk by when you're at a park. When you're at a park, you want to smell the trees and the good atmosphere, so it's just an unpleasant smell," Brigette Tait told the news o
"It's a little turn off-ish, but after a while, you're on the other side, and you don't pick it up anymore," said Ben Martinez.