10-12-2023, 04:36 PM
(10-11-2023, 09:53 PM)obifishkenobi Wrote: I spoke with a couple DWR biologist today, they said the process successfully killed the algae but because Matua is so shallow with not much much volume of water the dying algae lowered the dissolved oxygen to an extremely low level that caused the fish kill. Trout can not survive in less than 5 parts per million and as of today the lake was at 2.3 ppm but got as low as 1.5 ppm. They said that the warm water species where impacted but should rebound as there are places like the numerous springs and creak inflow where some would survive to replenish those species, but in the short term this winter in particular will be tough. In my opinion the only bright spot I can see is that the fish that did survive will have less competition and we may see some trophy fish for those that have patience in the next couple years.
Did the biologist say what an acceptable number of dead fish are? Seems to me this late in the season it would be better not to do anything rather than kill all those fish.