Culling Invasive Species From Yellowstone Lake

Culling Invasive Species From Yellowstone Lake

(Pictured Here; Yellowstone Lake)

In an effort to reduce the amount of lake trout in Yellowstone Lake, officials have allowed fisheries to fish and cull over 300,000 trout this year, alone. The lake trout is an invasive species of trout that “has decimated populations of cutthroat trout, which are native to Yellowstone Lake.” The lake trouts, also known as mackinaws, were introduced illegally to Yellowstone Lake. The cutthroat trout are a key fish species in the Yellowstone Lake ecosystems. Officials say that about 224,000 lake trout were fished from Yellowstone Lake in 2011. This reduction in the invasive species has allowed some small ‘breathing room’ for the cutthroat trout to hopefully start replenishing the population.

(Pictured Here: a lake trout)

The officials from Yellowstone Lake were so pleased with the amount of invasive trout culled, that they “plan to hold netting at current levels into the near future.” Although 224, 000 lake trout were caught last year, the total kill for the ten years is only 500,000. The cutthroat trout are important to the Yellowstone Lake ecosystem because of food source they provide to the predators. Prior to the introduction of lake trout, cutthroat trout would swim up small streams in the thousands each spring to spawn. This spawning time "made them an easy catch for predators, and cutthroat were once an important food source for grizzly bears, bald eagles, ospreys and river otters."

Original Article: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/55263455-68/lake-yellowstone-trout-cutthroat.html.csp