The fish that remain in what's left of Tempe Town Lake face certain death, so they'll be scooped out and tossed into the snapping jaws of alligators.
The city showed off its lake-cleanup plan Friday by trotting out a 6-foot gator that is one of many creatures to benefit from the lake going bust.
Several animal-rescue groups will use the fish to feed alligators, turtles, birds of prey and other recovered animals that feast on flesh. The city wants the fish removed before they die, or soon enough after they expire that they can safely be used as food. Other dead fish will be removed, too.
Russ Johnson fed the gator, named Tuesday, a fish from the lake on Friday morning before a crowd of curious kids and their parents. Johnson is president of the Phoenix Herpetological Society, which will feed fish to its 21 alligators and crocodiles.
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Kids petted Tuesday's tail while it chomped down on the fish, and as nervous parents asked whether the gator might snap back, Johnson explained that Tuesday was raised in a home with children and pets and is so docile that she is taken to schools for demonstrations.
"She was in front of 109,000 grammar school kids last year," he said. "If that won't drive her crackers, nothing will."
Tuesday was the only gator that will appear at the lake. The fish will be shipped to various animal rehab centers. If the fish come out faster than animals can eat them, the organizations have freezers to make the meat last longer.
The operation will continue until all the fish are removed.
Fish removal began Wednesday, the day after a rubber dam on the lake's west end suddenly burst and emptied most of the lake's billion gallons. Some shallow puddles remain, and water stands about 3 feet deep at the west end.
The heat and lack of oxygen will kill the fish, said Rick Amalfi, vice president of Aquatic Consulting and Testing. It's not worth transporting the fish to other urban lakes because most are carp, a fish lake operators typically want removed. Also, the fish are so stressed that most would die in the move, Amalfi said.
The 220-acre lake once held tens of thousands of fish, said Amalfi, whose company was contracted to test the lake and prevent insect infestations there since the year before the lake opened in 1999. As many as 95 percent were washed away, he said.
