Biologists poison lake to save it
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Biologists poison lake to save it
Date:
Tue, 1 Oct 2002
From:
Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide
Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
TURTLE LAKE: Biologists poison lake to save it Associated Press
TURTLE LAKE - Biologists have dumped roughly a ton of poison into Lightning Lake near here, saying it is the only way to save the 17-acre fishery.
“This is just a sample,” Jeff Hendrickson, a Riverdale fisheries biologist with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, said of the hundreds of dead yellow perch, carp, bullheads, trout and bluegill on the shoreline Tuesday.
“By the end of the day, there will be a lot more (dead fish),” he said.
What is supposed to be a recreational trout and bluegill fishery had grown into a mess of stunted perch, bullheads and carp, Hendrickson and others said.
Species control
In the world of fisheries management, trout and perch do not live well together in small bodies of water because the perch reproduce more rapidly, crowding out other fish. The result is a shortage of food and a stunted fish population.
To control the population of unwanted species, department biologists first tried introducing finned predators into Lightning Lake.
“We stocked walleye and largemouth bass to eat the perch, but they couldn't keep up,” Hendrickson said.
Scientists then tried trapping and transporting fish, but that plan also failed.
“Once we discovered there were bullheads and carp in there, we (scrapped) that idea,” Hendrickson said. “There aren't any lakes we want to move carp into.”
The poison was the last resort, he said.
The chemical used to kill the fishery, applied from a boat, suffocates anything that breathes through gills, biologists said. Plants, bugs, muskrats, and other aquatic creatures, however, are spared.
No harm will be done, either, to the band of raccoons, gulls and other critters that will certainly dine on the poisoned fish, scientists say.
Replacing fish Dave Fryda, a department fisheries biologist, said the latest poisoning marked the second time in about a decade that his department has had to poison Lightning Lake. The cost, including the price of chemicals and biologists' time, was about $3,000.
Terry Steinwand, the Game and Fish Department fisheries chief, said the state has spent nearly $350,000 since 1991 to chemically treat some of North Dakota's fisheries.
As the days wear on, the poison, called Rotenone, will lose its potency, and new fish will be put in the lake.
“You could probably put fish in here in a couple of weeks and they'd be OK,” Hendrickson said.
http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforksherald/4152655.htm
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