Any truth to this rumor?

[skanperch]

I heard - and it is ONLY a rumor insofar as I am concerned - that there was a substantial fish kill, in the form of lake trout, after an application of some kind of weedkiller at Myers Point.

I heard nothing beyond that, no further details. I hope someone out there can put this rumor to rest.

[lakebound88]

Sounds like a rumor is right....

Contact DEC?

[rolmops]

Weed killer is not used very often in the end of November.

[Pete Collin]

The most common weedkiller is glyphosate, or Round-Up. It is not toxic to aquatic life, according to every class I attended. That rumor may have come from the incident that occured at the salt plant this summer, where a brine line burst and spewed brine into the lake.

There is an insecticide that can be used for emerald ash borer that you soak into the roots of the trees you are treating. I understand that it is hard on fish. Don't know if they were spraying that at Meyers, but parks would be places that might treat ash trees. There also is an infestation of hemlock wooly adelgid in Watkins Glen State Park. Not sure what yo use to treat them. So it is not unimagineable that they would treat trees in state parks with insecticide.

Pete Collin

www.pcforestry.com

[Sk8man]

If it is true it is probably connected with the current Federal and State effort to combat HYDRILLA which is the most aggressive invasive vegetation imaginable. It has been found in the southern Ithaca area of Cayuga Lake and there is much concern about trying to eradicate it before it becomes established there (otherwisw it will take MILLIONS of dollars to control ...if at all). If it isn't controlled at this point it will completely take over all the Finger Lakes and more (e.g. Great Lakes as well). It reportedly can grow FEET in just one day and literally takes over the lakes and all native vegetation. If they can control it at this point it will be worth some fish dying....or at some point in the future the fishing in these lakes will be a thing of the past.

[pokepole39]

Now wouldnt that be something diffrent the ny state dec messing up once again ...get used to it the are broke taking short cuts and doing whatever it takes ... nothing personel but to be honest they dont have to good of a track record

[Second Chance 22]

The chemicals used to kill the Hydrilla, Endothall and Fluridone weren't applied in the concentrations that should have any effect on lake trout- especially miles away from the application sites.

Details of the health effects ( on plants, animals and people) of these chemicals are on the home web page of the Tompkins County Health Department. Monitoring data is also supplied for many sampling points (including Bolton Point) for the entire appplication period.

A lot of time and effort went into doing this right. That's one of the reasons that the treatments cost so much money.

[Sk8man]

Thanks for the details....here is the link http://www.tompkins-co.org/health/eh/water/hydrilla.htm

[rolmops]

Looking at this from a very different angle,there might be more to this rumor than meets the eye.

Some herbicides have spectacular results on fish. Specially a herbicide that is used when growing cucumbers. The cukes are perfectly fine for human consumption after application. However,when this herbicide is spread in the water,it causes a big fish kill. Again,the killed fish is perfectly fine for human consumption. Illegal "fishing" with this chemical is a real problem in Israel in the sea of Galilee. The killed fish makes its way to the fish market in Tiberias. Maybe somebody around here picked up on this trick.

[Sk8man]

I guess BEFORE we get too far afield here it might be good to know whether there actually was a fish kill....:>) Maybe we're getting too desperate for stuff to talk about now that the fishing has "wound down" on the lakes for many of us :>)

[rolmops]

I guess BEFORE we get too far afield here it might be good to know whether there actually was a fish kill....:>) Maybe we're getting too desperate for stuff to talk about now that the fishing has "wound down" on the lakes for many of us :>)

Yes, I do agree.

[panfisher]

rolmops.....very interesting. Do U or anyone else have any further info, as far as real studies or news on the cuke-herbicide-safe to consume-fishing-Israeli thing is concerned? Could and will spend a little time online to find some, but a lead or two would b nice....Sk8man....U R right absolutely; but this has already opened up neat (2 me) things to ponder and maybe be aware of ....

[rolmops]

rolmops.....very interesting. Do U or anyone else have any further info, as far as real studies or news on the cuke-herbicide-safe to consume-fishing-Israeli thing is concerned? Could and will spend a little time online to find some, but a lead or two would b nice....Sk8man....U R right absolutely; but this has already opened up neat (2 me) things to ponder and maybe be aware of .... [/quote

I lived near the Sea of Galilee from 1985 until 1997 and every so often we read reports in the papers about a few fisher men being arrested for using this obviously illegal harvesting method. The quantities of herbicide were very small, but they had a devastating effect on the native tilapia locally known as St.Peters Fish. Although it was known where the fish was sold, there never were more than residual markers found which were well below any level which would make it dangerous for human consumption. As far as I know nobody ever got punished beyond paying fines.

Here is part of an article written about this form of poaching.

Despite its reduction in fingerlings, the government places much of the blame on the fishermen. Anjioni said that many of them use nets with smaller holes than are permitted by law, while the size of the nets themselves exceed legal limits. This results in huge hauls of very young fish that are below the legal size limit and have not had a chance to breed. Anjioni also pointed out that there are several cases each year of fishermen releasing a poison called Tionex, which either stuns the fish or kills them. Meanwhile, the toxin temporarily contaminates the water, resulting in mass kills of fish too young to be legally caught.

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/126846/what ... z2DvxAdgb0

Endosulfan is the generic name of tionex. Molecular Formula: C9H6Cl6O3S Molecular Weight: 406.92514

I have to make a correction. tionex is an insectide not a herbicide.

[hermit]

I just spent some time reading about fishing in the Sea of Galilee. Pretty interesting reading about a completely different fishery. Anyway there were a few articles about poisoning but not many. I'm sure there would be more if I could read the local papers or searched more specifically to the area but general searches for combinations of "Sea of Galilee", "fishing", "pesticide/insecticide", "illegal", "poison", etc, etc found some.

Off topic a bit but related- currently they are having serious lake management problems. Commercial harvest of the mango tilapia crashed from 2,144 tons in 1999 to 157 tons in 2009. The government tried to do a 2 year ban of fishing but instead started closing fishing during spawning in the spring.

The fishermen want the government to butt out, and blame the cormorants for the crash. Apparently though the cormorants aren't really a threat to the tilapia.

The government claims overfishing is the problem. This seems more likely. Poison is mentioned, but most often I read that fishermen were using illegal nets with too-small holes, killing too many juvenile fish. There were just as many articles I found (which doesn't mean a whole lot as previously mentioned) that mentioned gill nets as poison.

I hope the fishing ban during spawning helps restore the fish populations.

Back on Cayuga, until rolmops mentioned this I was thinking that there is an awful lot of water in Cayuga and there would have to be a heck of a spill/dump to kill lakers 90 feet down as anything dumped would disperse very quickly. Now I'm not so sure as Galilee is also pretty big. I am also not a scientist, this all came from 20 minutes with Google. But my own opinion is that this is a rumor. Maybe folks are worried b/c of the Hydrilla treatments, or maybe something got heard wrong, or who knows. Talking about fishing is a lot like playing "telephone". Anyway I learned a few things today, very cool.

Edit Monday- looks like rolmops edited his post that's why there is redundant info...

[flyrod2]

Since there have been lots of hits thought I would help with what I found.

No fish kill, no chemical, no whatever. The only thing I could not confirm was whether the Mayans were correct about 12/21/12 in which it would not matter if there was a fish kill. Rumors are interesting. Hope no one spreads rumors when DEC put "chemicals" in the lake to kill lamprey in 2014.

As far as the DEC compitancy thing, we are fortunate to have the staff we do in Region 7. The former R7 fish manager/now Natural Resource supervisor did his thesis on Cayuga and Seneca, so he is very versed on the lakes, and yes I read the thesis. Remember when we complain about DEC it should be directed to Albany, not our regional crew. DEC Fish and WIldlife have a surplus of money from the previous license increase. It is the Governor and the Division of Budget that will not let them spend it. In fact your Governor wants to raid your surplus conservation fund.

[fishuntrapper]

and this is NOT a rumor