Our summer science communication intern is back at it again. This week, Bethany Prochnow headed out into the field with a team of researchers looking for a tiny invasive crustacean…
Towing for Tiny invasives
Our summer science communication intern is back at it again. This week, Bethany Prochnow headed out into the field with a team of researchers looking for a tiny invasive crustacean…
When did Lake Mendota start having few perch? You need a biologist working on your team.
Hi James, Lake Mendota started having fewer perch in the late 80s/early 90s. Like many, many lakes in Wisconsin, the lake is managed as a fishery. In Mendota’s case, it is managed as a walleye/pike fishery and walleye and pike love eating perch. Lake Monona, on the other side of the isthmus, is managed as a panfish (bluegill/perch/etc) fishery. The decision to manage Mendota this way stems from research done in the 80s, which showed that perch and other zooplankton eating fish were keeping our native zooplankton at numbers too low to eat enough algae to clear the water. So the state began stocking perch-eating species and, well, it worked. We gained three feet of water clarity back – or, at least, it worked until the spiny water flea showed up and started eating all of our native zoops again!
Oh, and also, we have plenty of biologists on our team – Ben Martin happens to be a very good fisheries biologist!
A bleach solution is mentioned in the text of the report. Is that something one can mix at home, and how did Ben clean the boat? Will that work to kill veligers as well?
Hi James, you sure can! Here’s New York’s Department of Environmental Quality’s recommendations – https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/50267.html