Lake Apopka
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Lake Apopka is one of the largest lakes in Florida in the United States. It is located west of Orlando and mostly in Orange County, but the western part is in Lake County. In the late 1990's, birds at the lake were actually falling from the sky and dying in large numbers. Most of the dead birds were White Pelicans, but great egrets and ring-billed gulls made up most of the other deaths. The deaths were thought to be tied to pesticides that farmers depended on for decades, called organochlorines.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service warned that people shouldn't eat fish caught in Lake Apopka, since the chemicals were labeled as a possible cause for the deaths.
[edit] References
- Jacksonville.com - Lake Apopka: An environmental tragedy (requires login)
- The Road Atlas '06, Rand McNally, pg. 27