Week 7: The First Benchmark

July 5, Wednesday:

This week's blog will be a short one, as we will be taking a break from sampling for the next week and a half or so in order to analyze the data we have collected thus far.

In order to complete our data set, we had to sample Danbury Arm of the lake one last time. We had the expectation that the carp may have moved slightly due to traffic from the fireworks event in the Danbury cove last weekend. We saw evidence that the boat traffic had affected the fish, as many carp's radio signals were heard more faintly than when the area was sampled previously. We also saw yet another case of large scale movement in which a fish that was seen before at both Brookfield Town Park and the beginning of the New Milford Arm appeared in Danbury Bay. It seems that with the increasing amount of recreational activity on the lake, the carp have become more mobile. We have plans to collect more data come early August in order to see if the fish have dispersed to more remote areas of the lake with the added activity.

As we have now fully sampled Candlewood Lake three times, we need to study the data we have already collected for correlations. We are hoping to see a relationship between the amount of fish movement and the size of the Milfoil beds that they are relocating to. We have theorized that the carp are willing to swim longer distances to reach a larger bed of Eurasian Milfoil due to its dependability as a food source. Updates will be posted as the data is processed and conclusions are drawn.

Special thanks to Allan Brooks for taking us sampling today!