Poisoning a lake to save local tourism....

[Neecy]

This is a bizarre story....

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The poison began flowing into scenic Lake Davis early Tuesday morning, and by midday thousands of dead fish were washing ashore or floating belly-up in the northern Sierra reservoir.

By the end of the week, the death toll is expected to include all of the lake's famous rainbow trout, many catfish, shiners and other bait fish along with tens of thousands of the voracious invader known as the northern pike.

The people of the historic high Sierra town of Portola are so desperate to get rid of the pike that they are willing to poison the once and future source of their drinking water and kill virtually every living thing in it to accomplish the task.

On Tuesday, state Department of Fish and Game crews went out in an armada of 25 boats and poured 16,000 gallons of the fish poison rotenone into Lake Davis in an attempt to exterminate the pike once and for all.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/09/26/MNISSD6A3.DTL

[Az]

1. Scorched Earth policy

Great. Scorched lake policy now. :banghead: Don't these people ever look around and notice that we are killing our planet in the name of greed? Are they trying to speed things up?

[Bennyboy]

2. Very misleading thread title....

It has nothing to do with tourism. If it did, they would keep the pike in the lake. They are a fun fish to fish and that is why they were introduced there in the first place.

This is to save the fisheries downstream. The northern Pike is a fast breeder and will decimate the native fish poulations downstream. That is the Sacramento River, the Delta and the SF Bay.

They have tried everything in the past to rid the lake of the pike, even poisoning it once before, but did not get rid of the fish.

[backscatter712]

3. Isn't the Northern Pike the "Frankenfish"?

IIRC, it's a total menace - it's not a native fish, it crowds out and preys upon the native fish, is just plain destructive.

[Bennyboy]

4. Yes...someone keeps putting them back into the lake....

and then they go through this all over again.....

[AngryAmish]

13. No, Northern Pike are tasty and fun

It is native to North America (maybe not that watershed, but the darn lake is manmade).

this is fishy racism.

[whoneedstickets]

17. Pike's favorite prey is 'soft-finned' cylindrical fish = young Trout! Kill em all.

If your a fisherman in the mid-west you'll know that a lake with a lot of pike usually has them and sunfish and not much else. The round-bodied, spiney finned sunfish is adapted to exist with pike. A 20" pike has a hard time eating a 1/2lb sunfish but can consume a 2lb trout with ease! Trout are pike snacks for a longer part of their lives. Yeah, Pike are great to catch and eat (I fish for them with a fly rod), but so are trout and the latter in this case are native and this lake holds some increasingly rare varieties (cutthroats). I say poison the idiot introducing them!

[AngryAmish]

18. Gotta disagree

I've fished many lakes with pike and lots of other fish. However, I suppose living several thousand miles away I may not know the whole story of what is happening out west.

Cheers!

[OnyxCollie]

15. No, that's a snakehead. nt

[XemaSab]

21. And the Feather River,

and the American River, and the San Joaquin River, and the Merced River, and the Tuolumne River, and the Cosumnes River, and the.... (you get the point).

If they got out of the lake they probably wouldn't get above Shasta Dam, they wouldn't affect rivers like the Klamath, the Russian, and the Eel, and they would never make it to the south valley.

Basically all the other rivers in North/Central California would be hosed. :(

[The2ndWheel]

5. "They will take over a system and change the ecology,"

"The reservoir was built in 1966, creating Lake Davis"

"In 1994, northern pike were illegally introduced into the lake, most likely by anglers who enjoyed fishing for them in the Midwest and Great Lakes"

We create the lake. We put fish into the lake that didn't evolve in the environment. Then we have to take out all the fish. Doesn't seem like the actions of the fish, any species of them, are the problem.

Not that it makes a difference. It's already been taken care of. Gotta do what you gotta do.

[tularetom]

6. I agree - the pike weren't the first time humans fucked up that lake

as you point out, fifty years ago there wasn't a lake there in the first place. Then hatchery trout were introduced into the lake.

BTW those things are scary. They're like fresh water barracudas. A friend caught one (in Lake Davis) before the 1997 poisoning and wound up with a bite on his hand that required stitches to close.

[Javaman]

7. They are nasty fish to catch.

I would catch them up in Canada. Great eating, but damn wild to keep then from chomping down on you.

[achtung_circus]

12. Caught lots on the Prairies

where they go by the name of Slough Sharks.

The pike's #1 food source is smaller pike, their #2 food source is ducklings.

Handle with care, mean and voracious, but "fun" and good eating, especially in egg and corn flake crumbs over a wood fire.

[mike_c]

8. this isn't about tourism, it's about preventing those fish from reaching...

...the Sacramento delta. Northern pike are voracious, invasive predators. Lake Davis eventually drains into the delta, so pike fry WILL escape and spread downstream sooner or later. The delta is a very fragile ecosystem, home to dozens of endangered species and already threatened by numerous invasives. Whomever seeded those pike into Lake Davis was acting incredibly selfishly-- they destroyed the native fishery and threatened the entire watershed.

[aikoaiko]

9. It would be great if they could kill all the fish and have still be edible.

mmmmmmmm. trout.

[TX-RAT]

24. They are still edible.

When we poisoned the lakes around here, people would net them and take them home. I've done it myself many times.

[aikoaiko]

26. Sweet --- there's really not much of a downside to this solution then

What substances were used to kill the fish?

[TX-RAT]

27. Same thing they used, Rotenone

From what i've seen it only attacks the gills and the fish basically suffocate. When it was used here, it was to get rid of all the trash fish that eventually get into the lakes. What was interesting was how it really didn't effect the smooth skinned fish that much.

[donsu]

10. insanity - does the lake drain into creeks, streams?

how long will the water be poisonous?

insanity

[backscatter712]

11. Info on the poison used:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotenone

According to the article, Rotenone breaks down in sunlight in about two weeks, but when released into water, as was done here, it can last up to six months.

I suspect this pesticide was chosen specifically because it kills fish dead, but it's only mildly toxic to mammals including humans, and will eventually go away.

[Ghost in the Machine]

14. There was thread on this last month, I guess they went ahead and did it huh?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1581593

Damn... they could have drained the lake, netted it, run fishing tournaments daily for a few months, ANYTHING but using poison, but NOOOOO they're idiots instead....

[OnyxCollie]

16. I heard about this on NPR yesterday.

They had even tried to use explosives to get rid of the fish.

[renie408]

19. Everything you mentioned would not have taken care of the fry. n/t

[Bennyboy]

30. Been tried...not successful...

[XemaSab]

20. NO NO NO!!!!!!

This is totally WRONG!!!!!

They're poisoning the lake to keep the pike from spreading! They are non-native to California and we're worried they'll eat the salmon!!!!!!

Get the facts right. :eyes:

[TX-RAT]

28. salmon!!!!!!

Land Locked Salmon in California lakes?

[XemaSab]

29. They're not landlocked.

Lake Davis is an impoundment of the Middle Fork Feather River, which flows into the Sacramento River.

[RebelOne]

22. This is done all the time in lakes all over the country.

Believe me, I know. I am a copy editor for 10 game and fish magazines and it is a common thing.

[Siyahamba]

23. Pickerel.

[whoneedstickets]

25. Translation: Walleye....

..Pike are Northern Pike (genus Esox, which includes muskies and chain pickerel). Pickerel (the Ontario term) refer to the largest member of the perch family (genus Stizostedion). They wouldn't cause nearly the damage Pike do.