Freshwater Fishing News

Among the most detrimental aquatic invasive species are zebra mussels and Quagga mussels.

The zebra mussel is named for its distinctive brown stripes. The species is a native of Europe. It first appeared in North America in the 1990s and quickly established itself in several major lakes and reservoirs.

The Quagga mussel, originally from Russia, also established populations in North America during the mid-1990s. The Quagga mussel is slightly larger than the zebra, its impact on lakes is the same. Although both species invaded the Grate Lakes region, the Quagga eventually dominated because they can live in deeper, colder water.

Zebra and Quagga mussels are eaten by ducks and other aquatic life. Fish that feed on mussels include common carp, redear sunfish, gobies, and other species. Although predation may reduce the number of zebra mussels in a limited area, it is not effective in eradicating mussels from a lake.

Both zebra and Quagga mussels feed by filtering plant plankton from the water, which increases water clarity in lakes. Because if the increased water clarity, aquatic plants often grow in deeper areas. As they feed, mussels deposit waste on the bottom, which in turn, helps sustain bottom-dwelling worms, scuds, insect nymphs and larvae.

According to a Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Fisheries Biologist, a local angler may have caught the oldest largemouth bass reported in Montana. The fish may also be one of the oldest surviving largemouth bass in North America.

10-year old Garrett Frost of Kalispell reported catching and releasing a tagged largemouth bass in Rose Creek Slough on July 16, 2011. The fish was estimated to be 20-22 inches in length and weigh approximately 3.5 lbs.

The alert angler pulled out the red floy tag numbered 5637 prior to releasing the fish. Fishery Worker Jon Cavigli checked the database and found that the bass had carried this floy tag for 14 years.

According to Garret’s father, Tyler, Garrett hooked the bass on a rubber worm while fishing from the front of their boat. Garrett landed the bass without assistance. Tyler reported that the bass appeared to be in good condition, and weighed 3-1/2 pounds on his scale.

According to the tag information, the bass was caught and tagged by Phil Rivard in Fennon Slough on October 3, 1997. At that time the fish was 14.2” long and weighed 1.5 lbs.

Cavigli, who keeps up the tag database, says that Rivard, a volunteer for FWP, caught, tagged, and released many largemouth bass in the sloughs of the Flathead River, adding to the age-growth database.

Based on the size of the largemouth bass in 1997 and the age-growth database, Deleray estimates that the fish was probably 5 years old when tagged. Adding that age with how long the tag was in the fish places its age at 19 years old. This may be the oldest confirmed largemouth bass reported in Montana.

Most sources place the maximum age at 15 or 16 for largemouth bass in the northern United States. Deleray is contacting other fisheries biologists, and, so far, has not found any records of largemouth bass as old as the Rose Creek Slough bass.

Largemouth bass in Montana are at the northern edge of their range. Fish tend to grow slower and live longer in the cold waters found in Montana and other northern states.

source: Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Fisheries

Power plants and other industrial facilities throughout the New York will be required to use the Best Technology Available (BTA) to protect aquatic wildlife when seeking cooling water intake permits under a new policy finalized by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

A BTA determination is required in each State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) permit for industrial facilities operating a cooling water intake system.

“Billions of fish are killed each year when they are caught up in the intake of cooling water for industrial processes,” Commissioner Joe Martens said. “The policy we are implementing today will reduce fish kills by 90 percent while allowing flexibility for the industry to reach our goal of protecting aquatic wildlife.”

Throughout New York State, more than 16 billion gallons of water are permitted to be withdrawn each day for the purposes of industrial cooling. As a result, more than 17 billion fish of all life stages (eggs, larvae, juveniles and adults) are entrained or impinged annually. The policy outlines mitigation measures that facilities must implement in order to minimize impacts to fish and other aquatic organisms from the intake of billions of gallons of the state’s surface waters. Implementation of this policy through the permitting process is anticipated to significantly reduce these losses of the state’s aquatic resource.

The policy identifies closed-cycle cooling or its equivalent as the performance goal for BTA to minimize these impacts. Many existing facilities use once-through cooling where water is drawn into the facility, passed through the cooling system, and then discharged back into the waterbody. Fish and other organisms are killed or injured in the process.

Closed-cycle cooling systems, such as cooling towers, use significantly less water and recirculate the water they use, reducing millions of gallons of water that is actually withdrawn from the water body. This, in turn, greatly reduces the impingement and entrainment of organisms – by more than 90 percent.

However, closed-cycle cooling is not always an available technology for existing facilities as issues of space availability and compatibility of new technology with the facility’s original design frequently make it infeasible to implement.

The performance goal of the policy allows facilities to propose an alternative mitigative technology, or operational measure, such as flow reduction, to achieve reductions in impact equivalent to what could be realized with cooling towers. This provides flexibility to the industry in designing a mitigative system while ensuring that aquatic impacts are reduced to the greatest extent possible.

A draft of the policy was released for public notice and comment in March 2010. Following public review, meetings were held with various stakeholders to discuss comments and questions on the draft policy. The revised, final policy is available on the DEC public website, along with a Response to Comments and final SEQR Negative Declaration.

source: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

The United States Department of the Interior recently announced the creation of a new federal partnership. The Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP) is a federal union of 11 agencies.

The partnership aims to stimulate regional and local economies, create local jobs, improve quality of life, and protect Americans’ health by revitalizing urban waterways in under-served communities across the country.

UWFP will focus its initial efforts on seven pilot locations:

- the Patapsco Watershed (Maryland)

- the Anacostia Watershed (Washington DC/Maryland)

- the Bronx & Harlem River Watersheds (New York)

- the South Platte River in Denver (Colorado)

- the Los Angeles River Watershed (California)

- the Lake Pontchartrain Area (New Orleans, La.)

- the Northwest Indiana Area

Agencies of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership include:

Environmental Protection Agency

Department of the Interior

United States Department of Agriculture

Corporation for National and Community Service

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Department of Commerce/Economic Development Administration

Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Army Corps of Engineers

Department of Transportation

Housing and Urban Development

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

For more information, visit: http://www.urbanwaters.gov

source: Department of the Interior press release

Natural stream flow suits native trout populations best, according to a study that examines the impacts of dam operations on threatened freshwater trout. The study appears in River Research and Applications.

In a study to identify the potential impacts of Hungry Horse Dam (Montana) operations on declining native trout populations, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey, Miller Ecological Consultants, Inc., Spatial Sciences & Imaging and Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks examined how changes in river flow affect fish habitat on the upper Flathead River in Montana.

“Our research suggests past flow management practices created sporadic flow fluctuations that were likely detrimental to threatened bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout populations in the upper Columbia River Basin,” said Clint Muhlfeld, project leader and USGS scientist. “With Montana providing 40 percent of the U.S. water storage in the Columbia Basin Power and Flood Control system, water demands –and biological impacts—are significant.”

Populations of native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout have declined throughout ranges in western North America due to a many factors, including habitat destruction, fragmentation and non-native species. Dam operations in the Columbia River Basin have contributed to these declines by changing flow and habitat, and disrupting routes of fish migration.

Loss of habitat connectivity and habitat modification can be especially detrimental to native trout populations, the study found. These fish migrate to spawn and feed and prefer large, relatively pristine habitats that are connected without any barriers such as dams.  Although the upper Flathead River system in Montana and British Columbia, Canada, is considered a regional and range-wide stronghold for bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout these populations may be threatened by the effects of 55 years of altering flow downstream of the Hungry Horse Dam.

Results of the study further suggest that dam management strategies that are more similar to the natural flow of the river will likely improve the chances of protecting habitat and help to maintain and restore bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout populations.

“Analyses comparing the natural flow of the mainstem Flathead River (predam, 1929–1952) with five postdam flow management strategies (1953–2008) show that natural flow conditions optimize the threatened bull trout habitats and that the current management practices best resemble the natural flow conditions of all postdam periods,” Muhlfeld said.

One caveat to this observation, said Muhlfeld, is the practice of increasing flow in the late summer to help fish species such as salmon and steelhead, known as “anadromous” because they migrate from salt water to fresh water to breed.  According to the study, increasing flow to benefit one species is actually reducing the amount of suitable habitat for another – the bull trout, a species listed as a threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

“Several studies have shown that dam operations have profound effects on anadromous fishes, yet before ours, few studies have examined the impacts of flow management strategies on habitats of threatened, native trout species in the upper Columbia River Basin,” Muhlfeld said.

Results from the study are featured in the April 2011 early online edition of River Research and Applications.  The article is titled “Assessing the impacts of river regulation on native bull trout (salvelinus confluentus) and westslope cutthroat trout (oncorhynchus clarki lewisi) habitats in the Upper Flathead River, Montana, USA” and can be viewed online.

source: USGS