An entire lake's fish population is gone. Every single one.

San Carlos Lake in eastern Arizona, a beloved reservoir with 158 miles of shoreline and state records for largemouth bass, crappie, bluegill, catfish, and trout, has been indefinitely closed after 100% of its fish died. Video footage shows the lake's surface blanketed with floating fish carcasses. Officials cited drought conditions and water released from the Coolidge Dam as the cause of the mass fish kill.

The lake sits within San Carlos Apache tribal lands. It is stocked year-round and holds fish records that took decades to build. Community members are devastated. One tribal member noted that officials had already lifted catch limits in anticipation of dropping water levels — a sign the crisis was foreseeable.

A complete fish kill affecting an entire lake does not happen by accident. It happens when drought conditions are not adequately managed, when dam releases are mistimed, and when water systems are not monitored with the urgency this moment demands. The Southwest is in a long-term water crisis. This is what that looks like.

The lake is closed indefinitely. The fish are gone. And without a serious investigation into what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again, the same outcome is entirely possible the next time water levels drop.

Sign this petition to demand Arizona wildlife and water management officials conduct a full investigation into the San Carlos Lake fish kill and implement emergency protections to prevent this from happening again.

Photo: AOL/NYPost