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Consumption Advisory
for Largemouth Bass Issued at Pierce Pond in Mason City
Posted: July 20, 2006
MASON CITY - A fish consumption
advisory for largemouth bass is being issued at Black Pit (also
known as Pierce Pond) located in Lester Milligan Park in Mason
City by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Two recent fish tissue
samplings conducted by the DNR - one in early May and a
subsequent one in late June - detected slightly elevated levels
of mercury in largemouth bass fillets. The levels were 0.24
parts per million (ppm) in the May sampling and 0.23 ppm in the
June sampling of fish tissue. The samples taken for both channel
catfish and panfish were below the 0.2 ppm level for mercury.
The advisory recommends that
people limit their consumption of largemouth bass coming from
Black Pit to one meal per week. The advisory is recommended by
the Iowa Department of Public Health which, with guidance from
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has determined
that fish with less than 0.2 ppm mercury are safe for
consumption and that consumption of fish containing between 0.2
and 1.0 ppm of mercury is safe if limited to one meal per week.
Two samples of fish tissue
above the 0.2 ppm level need to be documented before an advisory
is issued. Black Pit was previously sampled in July of 2005 and
all of the results were less than 0.2 ppm for mercury. The
advisory will be lifted after two consecutive samples of fish
from the pond return results less than the 0.2 ppm level. The
DNR plans to conduct additional sampling of fish tissue from
Black Pit later this fall.
A nearby pond in Lester
Milligan Park, Big Blue, is not impacted and there are no
advisories being put into effect for fish from there.
MORE
Although the source of mercury
in Black Pit is not known, in 2005 EPA inspected two buildings
and the surrounding property located at 1511 S. Garfield Place
and 1580 SW 15th St. where mercury oxide battery manufacturing
operations were performed in the past. EPA found elevated
mercury levels and regulatory violations. The EPA office in
Kansas City, Kansas, is currently negotiating an agreement with
past and current facility owners to assess the extent of
remaining mercury contamination and perform necessary cleanup
actions.
Additional information
regarding fish consumption is available at: http://www.iowadnr.gov/fish/news/consump.htm.
For additional information,
contact Shawntell Martin, Public Affairs Specialist for U.S. EPA
Region 7, at 913-551-7003 or by e-mail at martin.shawntell@epa.gov
or Kevin Baskins, Communications Bureau Chief for Iowa DNR at
515-281-8395 or by e-mail at
kevin.baskins@dnr.state.ia.us.
Fish Kill in Benton
County Linked to Open Feedlot
KEYSTONE - The DNR has traced a
Benton County fish kill in a small tributary of Prairie Creek to
an open feedlot owned by Charles Wauters of rural Keystone.
Wauters’ relatively small open
feedlot is located next to a small stream.
“He had been watering cattle to
cool them off, leaving puddles of water to mix with manure and
corn glucose, a feed additive, in the lot,” said Mike Wade, an
environmental specialist with the Manchester DNR field office.
Rainfall on Monday night
apparently washed the manure-contaminated water into the stream
and then into Prairie Creek. Dead fish were found in Prairie
Creek for up to 14 miles downstream.
Wade advises other livestock
operations to keep a close eye on run-off, because conditions
are right for devastating effects on streams.
“We have the heat, the low
stream flows and the conditions that make any run-off to a
stream particularly toxic,” he said. “We had more than 10 fish
kills in just one week of August in 1998 under these exact same
conditions.”
The DNR found dead carp, white
suckers, smallmouth bass and minnows below where the small
stream joined Prairie Creek.
The DNR will take the
appropriate legal action based on the results of the
investigation and the number and species of dead fish.
Wipers are Coming On
by Joe Wilkinson
Posted: July 18, 2006
Make no mistake. They're
wipers, not white bass. Midsummer anglers get a welcome
surprise, as they troll for walleye or white bass on Iowa lakes
ranging from Macbride, Coralville to Manawa, Three Mile and
Saylorville. "I had a guy call a few days ago, saying he'd
caught a new state record white bass. It was a wiper," reports
Chris Mack, fisheries technician at the Department of Natural
Resources Macbride station.
Calls to the Macbride office
pick up this time each summer; anglers asking about Iowa's white
bass record (3 pounds, 14 ounces by the way) or just 'what is
this big fish?'' that they just caught. If they think it's a
white bass, they're half right. Wipers are a hybrid; eggs from
ocean striped bass crossed in hatcheries with male white bass.
Stocked in reservoir settings; they grow quickly, feeding on
shad populations. It's not uncommon to pull in a 10-pounder or a
sagging stringer of 4 to 5 pounders. I had a call a week ago
from a Cedar Rapids angler whose son had hauled in one weighing
over 13 pounds. A 19-pound, 10-ounce wiper taken from the Des
Moines River a few years ago is the state record.
And while your heart will be
pumping as you bring that big, white bass near-look alike over
the boat transom, you're probably looking at its hybrid cousin.
"If it is over 16 inches, it's probably a wiper," advises Mack,
though noting that 17-inch white bass have come out of Pleasant
Creek Lake in his area. While each is predominately white;
side-by-side comparison tells them apart. Wipers have a bold
stripe pattern. White bass stripes are less pronounced. Wipers
take on more of a sleek 'torpedo' shape. "The most obvious
difference, though, is the tongue patch," says Mack. "On a white
bass, there is a 'U' shaped patch on the top of the tongue. On a
wiper, the patch resembles two small unconnected ovals."
As hybrids, wipers do not
reproduce. Hatcheries keep a steady stream of fry and
fingerlings coming, though. Iowa gets its wipers from states
like Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska, which hatch and stock them
in larger reservoirs. It's usually a swap of surplus stock. "We
traded walleye eggs to Oklahoma for their surplus wiper fry,"
says Mike Mason, DNR hatcheries program supervisor. "(Most) were
stocked in Saylorville. The remainder went to our Mt. Ayr
Hatchery, to be raised to a larger size." Larger, 1 to 1.5 inch
fingerlings are released in some settings to increase survival
prospects. The Macbride crew drove to Nebraska to bring back
62,000 fingerlings in June. Half went into Macbride, the other
half in Coralville. They'll be catchable in two years. Smaller
fry from Delaware were also stocked in Macbride.
One reason many anglers are
surprised when they hook a wiper is that it's not really a fish
you 'go fishing for.' Mack might pick one up a wiper while
trolling for walleye and will then start fishing for them. "They
seem to relate to deeper rock. They are following the shad. You
can look for shad on the surface. Just troll shad-colored
(chrome, silver or white) crankbaits," says Mack. "During mid
summer, they're on a feeding frenzy; the warmer water means
their metabolism is higher. They have to eat more. They're going
after this year's shad hatch."
In eastern Iowa, Coralville
Reservoir provides the big water setting. However, Lake Macbride,
adjacent to the Reservoir, offers better fishing, this summer.
And if you can afford an extra tank of $3 a gallon gas, you
might point west. "Lake Manawa (near Council Bluffs) has really
excellent wiper fishing this year," advises Mason. "We've been
stocking there for a couple years and they have really taken off
there."
Iowa’s Newest ATV Park
Opens In Fort Dodge
FORT DODGE - Iowa’s newest
all-terrain vehicle park near Fort Dodge is now open, bringing
to eight the number of ATV parks available to off-road riders.
Gypsum City ATV Park opened
July 8, with park hours set at sunrise to sunset. Like the other
ATV parks, certain rules and regulations apply.
- ATVs and motorcycles must
have and display a valid DNR registration
- Helmets are required for
all operators
- No person under the age of
12 may operate an ATV in the park
- ATV riders under 18 years
of age must have a valid safety certificate
- Riding double is
prohibited on all ATVs and motorcycles
- Riding off trail or in
prohibited areas is illegal
- Careless, reckless or
negligent operation is prohibited
- Speeds greater than
reasonable or proper under all existing circumstances is
prohibited
- Riding while under the
influence of drugs or alcohol is prohibited
- ATVs and motorcycles may
not exceed an engine noise limit of 86 decibels measured at
a distance of 50 feet
Gypsum City ATV Park is located
at 2390 Mill Road, south of Fort Dodge just off U.S. Highway 20.
Minnesota and
Wisconsin Ospreys Taking to Iowa
BOONE - The 25 young ospreys
placed at five sites around Iowa all seem to have weathered the
relocation well. The young osprey face biological and climatic
challenges associated with the relocation and will be helped by
wildlife biologists and rehabilitators along the way.
Volunteers are welcomed to
contact coordinators at each "hack," or release site, to assist
in these efforts to bring ospreys to Iowa. Financial support is
especially appreciated at each site as no tax dollars or DNR
Wildlife Diversity funds are budgeted for this project. Contacts
for each site are Don Williams Lake, Boone County, 515-353-4237;
Clear Lake, 641-357-5267; Marion County/Elk Rock State Park,
641-627-5935, White Rock Conservancy, Guthrie County,
712-683-5555, and Wickiup Hill at Linn County, 319-892-6485.
The young ospreys are developed
enough to tear apart their favorite food, fish, by themselves.
They will be attaining flight status about 53 days of age and
allowed to fly freely from their "hack" or release site. Where
the birds learn to fly and fish on their own becomes their
"home" where survivors return to nest at four or five years of
age. Volunteers and wildlife professionals at five sites have
geared up to fill the niche the osprey adults were providing
their young with fish and security. In conjunction with feeding
the birds, the young ospreys are monitored daily to ensure they
will be flight ready.
There have been 154 ospreys
released at eight sites since 1997. Ospreys have successfully
nested in Iowa since 2003 with eight young produced from four
successful nestings.
In 2006 there have been six
nesting attempts and four nests have produced eight young. There
are currently active nests at Macbride Raptor Project, Hartman
Reserve Nature Center, Jester Park, in Polk County.
All Iowa Ospreys have a purple
band with number and letter on right leg and silver USFWS band
on left leg. The wild-produced Ospreys from Iowa have a green
USFWS band.
