Mantua 12/6

[TubeDude]

Man I'll bet that was fun Bob... Pat, how can they introduce other species of fish, isn't that bad taboo?  Or is it a private pond with no drainage to other areas so the fish won't spread?  Or did the division plant the other species? I'm going to have to get Google Earth to work and check this area out... I'll bet the explorers loved that pond in the middle of the desert...  Later J

That pond...or series of ponds...are natural springs...warm all year and highly mineralized.  There have been bass and bluegills in there for decades...maybe even originally planted by DWR.  But about 20 years ago Nile tilapia started showing up in several of the ponds.  You know they didn't swim upstream from Africa...sooooo?????  Some blame the skin divers.  Others blame the hispanic working force in Wendover for wanting to have some of their fave fish available close by.  At any rate, these introductions are highly illegal...bnt that has never deterred the bucket bozos.

Since then there have been other species of exotics show up...usually popular aquarium species that someone thought would do better in Blue Lake than in their tank at home.  There is a mandatory keep and kill on all these other species but they seem to maintain a population.  And the divers enjoy feeding them underwater from cans of Cheeze Whiz. 

There are several warm mineralized springs scattered across the desert from Tooele to Wendover.   Some of them were marginally okay for watering the pioneers' livestock.  But most are not.  As remnants of the former lake Bonneville, many of them hold fish...from chubs to carp to bass and bluegills.