Tuesday October 17, 2023
KMVT —
Fish and Game will be continuing to monitor the fish population for the next two weeks.
There will be a follow-up Electrofishing survey beginning next week to get an idea of the impact of the treatment on the fish population. The survey will help determine if the fish that were tagged prior to the treatment, survived, died, moved down street or completely left the system.
The majority of the fish that have been detected dead so far have been largescale suckers, common carp and northern pikeminnow. They’ve also detected some yellow perch, and a few sturgeons during the chelated copper treatment. According, to Regional Fisheries Manager of Idaho’s Fish and Game, Mike Peterson, they plan to leave the dead fish in the water.
“The fish within the system will remain in the system for the most part, the fish will provide nutrients to restart some of the aquatic insect populations, as well as provide nutrients for aquatic plant growth moving forward, and all of this will be important as we develop plans to recover these fisheries whether that includes translocation of fish from other populations or stocking fish into the system, said Peterson.