VAN tannin Bodies Washed Up on Lake -Shore--xEark Aide Says . 'SiltCut Off Oxygen - By nIccaNDL1sH rln.LIrs FISHSUFFOGATINGI Van Cortlandts Park in the Bronx, clothed in the light green loveliness of 1 May, is giving. off an odor- of dead fish in its south central sector. The margin of its lake is lined with dead perch and as- sorted other fish from thumb- length size to 11. inches long. iThisisthetI1ird.yearin'a: row that fish have died en masse at the lake. The problem has perplexed and troubled several city departments. -"Last year, .we found that the fish weren't getting enough oxygen," a spokesman for the Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity. said. Silt Washed Into Lake Dead fish started washing up on _the lake shores Friday. A Park Department official, who had conferred with experts from the State Conservation Department,' said it appeared that heavy rains and flash floods last Thursday had loaded the lake with silt, washed down from hills and banks around' the lake. The silt caused heavy sedimentation and also hung suspended in the water, pre- venting the fish from getting oxygen, he said. He described the victims as "salvage fish, yellow perch and guppies mainly, of small value." The Conservation Department will restock the lake soon, he added. produce carbon dioxide, putting "We put new water into the lake by opening the valve and letting fresh city water pour in. Next we'll net the dead ones up from rowboats and take them to the incinerator," he said. Suffocation Suspected Dr. Ross F. Nigrelli, pathol- ogist of the New York Aqua- rium at Coney Island, said pre- vious investigations Ied him to believe that the' fish had died, not of poison or disease but of suffocation. "With the rise in tempera- ture and increasing daylight, you get a very dense growth to! algae that is photosyn- athesizing," he said. "They pro- gduce considerable amounts of ioxygen by day. But at night jthey utilize the oxygen, deplet- ging the water of it, and they excess amounts of [it] into the environment.'- "This prevents oxygen from being taken up by the gflis, causing anoxia, or suffocation." There was a stagnant-loole ing, filmy brownish green scum on the lake yesterday; occasion- ally it was broken by the snout of a fish apparently coming up for air. The man at the Depart- ment of Water Supply said there was "nothing polluted about the lake at all." The air was another matter. came here for fresh air and look what I get," said a house- wife pushing a stroller. Ely: firm flork Eiince Published: May 19, 1964 Copyright (C) The New York Times