In the News: When Fish and Infrastructure Collide
Above: A gizzard shad
An extraordinary fish die-off in Lake Huron made headlines in 2025 when millions of gizzard shad accumulated near Bruce Power’s nuclear generating station, overwhelming the plant’s cooling-water intake system and contributing to a reactor shutdown.
Newly reported documents reveal the scale of the event: an estimated 8.1 million fish were involved near the plant in a single day. Bruce Power’s investigation points to a combination of environmental conditions—including prolonged cold and unusually high numbers of gizzard shad—as contributing factors.
The incident is a striking example of how changes and extremes in aquatic ecosystems can have consequences well beyond the ecosystem itself, creating unexpected challenges for critical infrastructure.