Finalization

July 18, Tuesday:

Today marked our final day of sampling for the month of July. Although we believed we had completely sampled the lake three times since the beginning of our study in May, there was an oversight in which a small cove of the lake, containing four sites that had never been sampled. This portion of the lake was missed due to the fact that our sampling sites come from maps pre-printed by WCSU and the Candlewood Lake Authority (CLA). The maps are created on a program called GIS, and unfortunately, the image of the Danbury arm of the lake was zoomed in on too much, cutting out the Lattin's Cove sites.

As the area had not been sampled in 2016 either, the oversight did not have a large impact on the overall integrity of our data. However, as Lattin's Cove contains large beds of Eurasian Milfoil, we thought that it would be prudent to scan the area for any missing fish. These fish would not be considered in our final study, however, they would be included in our percentage of 2017 sightings.

Above: One of the large Milfoil beds in Lattin's Cove

Despite our hopeful expectations upon seeing the amount of Milfoil within Lattin's Cove, we did not find any Triploid Grass Carp here. Even though there is plenty of food for the fish here, it was not surprising that we did not see any of our tagged fish. Lattin's Cove is located between Echo Bay in Brookfield and the Danbury arm of Candlewood Lake. The nearest release site was the Danbury Town Park, which is located at the very bottom of the Danbury arm. Additionally, the entrance to the cove is in one of the widest sections of the lake, making it potentially difficult for the fish detect the food within it. Therefore, it is likely that fish will make their way here once all other food sources in the area have been depleted.

Above: A look at the size of one of the beds in Lattin's Cove

Taking a look at the above image, it is no wonder that no carp were found in Lattin's cove. Although there is a huge amount of food here for the fish, there is absolutely no evidence of activity. All over the lake, wherever we have found fish, we never see this much Milfoil, this close to the surface of the water. While this is definitely good news for the carp project as a whole, indicating that the fish have an impact, we definitely need the fish to find their way to Lattin's Cove!

Thank you very much to Mark, Len, and Phyllis for helping us to sample!