If all goes according to schedule, Mack Mesa Reservoir should be an actual reservoir once again by next week.
The reservoir was drained in mid-April after northern pike, a carnivorous, predatory species of fish, was discovered in its waters this past fall and spring. The water was suctioned out of the reservoir and 1,049 fish were relocated, with most being moved to Highline Lake while the others were taken to the Rifle Gap.
Fortunately, all of the northern pike, including those discovered during the draining, have been removed from the park and no longer call Western Slope waters home. Now, Colorado Parks and Wildlife turns its attention to restoring the reservoir.
“It’ll fill relatively quickly, but that depends on all the in-flow water, how high the water coming in is, the creeks and streams it comes out of, the irrigation canal, all of that,” said CPW spokesman Randy Hampton. “Whatever the input water is, it’ll depend on how well that’s running.”
The task of draining and refilling the reservoir is far from simple for CPW. For instance, CPW rented the pump it used for the draining and is using to return the water. The pump was brought in from outside of the state.
“Certainly, for getting a pump large enough to do this kind of emptying a lake, it’s not a simple process,” Hampton said. “That’s expensive and time-consuming. Really, though, the biggest challenge is the volume of time that it takes to run the pump every day, to hook it up, to make sure the input hose is moved into a spot where there’s water, all of those kinds of things. It’s a pretty labor-intensive process.”
Even worse for CPW was how unnecessary all of these efforts were. Northern pike aren’t native to the Western Slope, which means that their presence was likely the result of criminal activity.
“The frustrating part of this is that there’s a strong possibility that somebody illegally put those fish in there, and it creates a lot of work for staff, especially our aquatic biologists in the area, and there’s probably better things he could be doing to help fisheries vs. spending so much time trying to clean up after somebody that got selfish,” Hampton said. “It’s time-consuming, and that’s frustrating, too.”
Before the draining occurred, CPW staff spent five nights on fish-salvaging efforts. Each night, some would go out on the reservoir, catching fish with nets or electrofishing. In total, 449 yellow perch, 289 black crappies, 234 bluegills, 56 largemouth bass and 21 channel catfish were relocated from the reservoir.
Soon, many of those fish will return to Mack Mesa Reservoir, and they might even have new fish friends because of CPW’s stocking efforts.
“There’s an internal request for stocking in, including a request for some larger broodfish that are the bigger fish that come out of some of the hatcheries so that we can make it fishable right away,” Hampton said. “It goes to our hatchery system, so it’s an internal request.”
The Link LonkMay 02, 2021 at 01:15PM
https://ift.tt/3vzrxeT
CPW to refill, return fish to Mack Mesa Reservoir - The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
https://ift.tt/35JkYuc
Fish
No comments:
Post a Comment