I was heading east on one of the trails at Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve in Clifton Park, New York this morning when a smell reminded me of the bait shack for the lobster boats at Perkins Cove in Maine. Except the smell wasn't as pleasant. 

After walking another 100 feet or so I could see what was causing the smell. Hundreds of dead and rotting carp carcasses, which you can see in the next two photos. I only had my 35mm lens so, sorry, but no closeups. Close to shore, some of the carp had been chewed to bits but most which were out in the water and mud seemed intact.

What looks like a pond is actually an inlet from the Mohawk River. This west end of the inlet is, unfortunately for the carp, deeper that the portion to the east which leads to the river. Just another 100 feet or so and the inlet looked like this.

So, by the time the carp were sensing that they needed deeper water, there was no way to get there. The level of the Mohawk River varies greatly with rainfall. It has been dry lately with only 1.12 inches of rain during the month of May compared to the average amount at this point in the month of 2.99 inches. 

The following photo shows the "mouth" of the inlet with the river in the background. 

This final photo looks back at the "mouth" of the inlet. The trail is at least six feet above the current water level and it's not infrequent for the river to wash over the trail into the old Erie Canal which is just the other side of the trail. There are scoured out portions of the trail, as in the photo, where it is low enough for this to occur. 

I'm sure this carp catastrophe occurs from time to time depending on the season and the rainfall but it's the first time I've noticed it.