Carp

 "When a thing is funny, search it for a hidden truth.'' ~ George Bernard Shaw

Gadabout Gaddis, the Flying Fisherman.

 Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

I have probably flogged the dead fish story as much as I can. A wise writer would stop now, but I can't help it, I'm gonna tell this story.  I hang my head in shame for what I'm about to write....

Way back in the early 60s, there was a short lived TV show:  “The Flying Fisherman” featuring Gadabout Gaddis.  Gaddis is actually the main reason why I called this blog “The Gadabout” those many years ago when I had to come up with a name.  He was my first exposure to the word in his TV show in my youth.  How could I not name my blog after a guy who flew around to different places and told stories?

I bring this up because the Goldfish Apocalypse/Piscicide just reminded of a hoary old story about Mr Gaddis. 

It seems that the Flying Fisherman was enormously proud of the fact that he never got skunked.  He always caught a fish.  ( OK, I know the wiki link I just shared specifically makes me liar here...work with me on this, please? )

Until that fateful day when the only fish he caught was a carp.  The next day it occurred again.  And then again.  Because no one eats Carp and because he was a humanitarian, he just tossed those carp into a pool on his property.  Of course, he had a breeding pair and soon his pool was full of carp. 

He didn’t know what to do.  He didn’t want to waste the fish but he couldn’t keep multiplying the stock. 

A friend mentioned that he knew a leather worker who might be interested in Carp Skin.  Sure enough, when Mr Gaddis called the leatherworker he said, “Yes, I have had some success with skinning carp and using them to make what are traditionally leather goods.” 

So, he came over to the pool, gathered up a mess of Carp and went back to his leather shop.  He learned he could make pretty nice wallets out of Carp skin and soon Gadabout and the leather worker were known all over the country for their “Carp to Carp Walleting.”

On that note, I remain,

Dad/Geoff

 

The Carassius Auratus Piscicide Continued.

"No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death: and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." 

~ Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

I was surprised to find the real Hobbes quote.  It is not difficult to see why it is always misquoted.  Not sure it applies to this post, but I like it, so it's in.

Anyway, back to the Gadabout….

Yesterday, the nice helpful Water Resources Specialist was down on our property working around the Lake.  There is a easement and a rudimentary road across all the properties on the west side of the lake to allow the City access.  The main part of the easement is on our property.  There is a 10'x10' or so asphalt pad that is adjacent to the electric pump and large sunken cistern.  This is where she was parked.  On personal side note, our grand kids have derived some small childish pleasure from jumping on the metal lid of the cistern to cause a loud, hollow booming sound.  

She is in charge of carrying out the Goldfish Pogrom, Holocaust and Piscicide.  I wasn’t around, but Ann went down and talked to her.

 She was walking along the edge of the lake collecting dead gold carcasses and cleaning up a little.  Our neighbors across the lake over on the east side were encouraging her to come over to their side and collect there too. But that side of the lake is a very steep bluff - difficult and dangerous to navigate and dern near impossible to haul fish carcasses back up.  Especially when it is muddy like yesterday. So she didn't.  I am ashamed to include this next sentence.  Close enough for government work.

Ann got her name and last night, I sent her an email asking some questions that were burning my feverish mind.

Since yesterday, we got several inches of snow and the Silence of the Fish is now hidden beneath a beautiful layer of snow.  It is very peaceful and serene.  

Peaceful snow covers the Piscicide. 

Here is the email I got back from her.  You may deduce my questions from the answers I got.  You might also note that there are two interesting links to the internet down at the bottom of her email.  I encourage you to click those to assuage your curiosity.

Hi Geoff,

Thanks for the email! This is Jessie, and yes I had a nice chat with Ann yesterday while I was out checking the lake. I’m glad she stopped out as we’re always happy to make a personal connection, especially at lake access points where we’ll likely be visiting quite often in the next year or two.

 Almquist Lake does receive stormwater runoff from streets/roofs/yards/driveways via four different pipes, but otherwise the only pond upstream is a very small constructed storm basin between Penkwe Circle and Shevlin Ct, and no other upstream lakes or natural ponds. 

 The stormwater lift station and stormwater pipes pump lake water out of Almquist to the North, through three other small ponds, and eventually to Thomas Lake. Thomas flows eventually to Blackhawk Lake, and then to Minnesota River. Almost all the surface waters in Eagan are connected either by surface flow or underground stormwater pipes, although whether the pipes constantly have water in them, or are wet at some points and dry at others, depends on the pipe (angle, location and depth). Because water is pumped out of Almquist with an electric pump and then eventually flows downhill to the next pond at a certain high point, I don’t think it’s possible for fish to gain access back upstream from there, if that’s what you mean? Some places may see fish movement like this, but not all.

We know there are already goldfish in Thomas Lake, but there are also intentional efforts by the City and the Minnesota DNR to keep sport fish populations thriving in Thomas and other large public access lakes in Eagan, which helps cut down on any goldfish problems. They are an invasive species to Minnesota, but seems like they are less of a problem when other fish are around to keep their populations in check, either by consuming their eggs or the adult goldfish up to a certain size. However when goldfish get into small shallow ponds without the depth or oxygen levels required to support the other fish survival, the goldfish population explodes and the ecosystem declines, often contributing to turbid water, higher dissolved nutrients, and algae blooms. I think it’s likely that (several? many?) but certainly not all, of the surface waters in Eagan contain goldfish, almost all due to folks either discarding aquarium fish, or wanting to see pretty fish swimming in the pond, without realizing how harmful their actions may be.

Goldfish absolutely can survive the winter temperatures, and extremely low oxygen levels. Smaller (younger) goldfish with higher metabolism are more susceptible to oxygen stress, and would explain why it’s taken two weeks post-treatment to see some of the larger goldfish succumb in Almquist. I am hopeful that this one rotenone treatment will be enough to kill all the goldfish, but we won’t really know until springtime when we can get back on the lake and look for survivors. If we are not successful at removing all the goldfish with this one treatment, I have some ideas for things to try other than rotenone, but I think we’ll go one step at a time. I would prefer not to have to repeat the rotenone treatment, and we are still planning to apply liquid alum to the lake next fall which should help water quality improve as well, and we’ll keep assessing progress.

We have tips on our website about not dumping aquariums, but nothing yet specific about goldfish. Maybe we’ll work on something soon :) Meantime, here is the DNR website about goldfish that you may find interesting: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/aquaticanimals/goldfish.html and a news story about folks doing a similar, arguably more complicated project up in Carver County: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/11/01/thousands-of-goldfish-removed-from-twin-cities-lake

 Hope this helps, appreciate your interest and I will look forward to keeping the neighborhood updated on progress in the coming months!

Jessie Koehle (she, her) Water Resources Specialist 3501 Coachman Pt | Eagan, MN 55122 Office: 651-675-5320 Mobile: 651-485-2235 https://www.cityofeagan.com/fishing

For those of you who care, here is a link to what Rotenone does.  That link introduced me to a new word: "Piscicide."  Which is a really cool word.  So...I went back through this post during the edit and changed all the "apocalypses" to "piscicide".  Use a new word three times and it is yours for life!

The perspicacious reader will note that one does not have to remain in ignorance of her pronouns.  The more perspicacious reader will be able to deduce my opinion of that.  I choose not to elaborate that opinion as she is being so helpful to us. 

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad/Geoff 

ps, I originally attributed the quote to Thomas Mann.  I hang my head in shame!

 

The Carassius Auratus Apocalpyse

 "Perhaps catastrophe is the natural human environment, and even though we spend a good deal of energy trying to get away from it, we are programmed for survival amid catastrophe." ~ Germaine Greer

  

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

 I like to start my Gadabout Stories with a quote from my collection.  I’ve been saving them almost 50 years now. I strive for either a light-hearted or an informational viewpoint. As I started composing this Gadabout, I found that I had not captured a quote appropriate to the topic I’m about to discuss.   So, I wound up finding Germain Greer of all the people on the interwebz….

This was meant to be a tongue in cheek story about a small ecological problem that I thought was confined to the lake in our backyard. Sadly, a moment’s research and I find it is a problem endemic – maybe even pandemic! - to the cities in much of Dakota County, MN. 

I speak of the Goldfish Infestation.

Bear with me as I wade through this story.

I took Rowdy and Rory for a walk along the path that cuts across our backyard and the adjoining neighbors next to the lake today.  Over the last two weeks the lake froze pretty hard and then thawed around the edges during the last four days or so when it’s been above freezing.  The ice is thick enough for the dogs to spread their toes and walk out on it safely.

This summer, fall and just two weeks ago, the City of Eagan use their access road to lay out a system of fish traps all out in the lake. We asked "Whuffo?" and were told we are totally infested with Goldfish and I am ashamed to say I yawned at this information.

But the horror I saw on my walk today changed all that.  In the thawed fringe of the lake are literally – not "literally" like a woke democrat might say – but actually, no kidding literally, hundreds of dead goldfish floating about.  I’m not talking your average cute little finny goldfish in a quart tank either.  I’m talking two pounder Koi Pond Gold fish.

I found these articles from the media.  After you have used the requisite level of skepticism to read them - because it’s the media after all - heck one of the links is Newsweek.  But, you can actually trust these accounts because I’ve seen the evidence with my own eyes.  There was a Koi Population Disaster brewing just a few yards from my home!

Someone, somewhere in Dakota County set the goldfish equivalent of Mr. and Mrs. Nemo free and then them fish got busy.  If you look at it from the Koi’s viewpoint, it’s a real hopes dashed tragedy.  Think about it…there you are swimming around in some decorative aquarium, bored out of your fish mind eating Koi food when some human remembers to feed you.  Suddenly, you are yanked up and put this this great huge interconnected aqua-system that lets you swim for miles eating and procreating!  It’s Nirvana!  Then it freezes and the Apocalypse begins.

The City says they are going to poison the lakes.  I’m think the fact that our lake is shallow and Goldfish ain’t got the sense to swim out to where it’s deep coupled with the fact they ain’t got the nature to survive cold winter might help too.

But the real reason I’m telling this story is to tell the personal part of this disaster.  I took this picture during the walk.

There are pools of thawed water that contain the carcasses of lots of Goldfish.  I took this picture of a sparsely populated pool to save my Gentle Readers from the emotional impact. 

Soon after, I hear a splash and Rowdy and Rory are glorying in how good it feels to wallow in the cool dead Goldfish flavored water!  This is better than rolling in a dead racoon!

I think I have covered this Ichy situation in enough detail now....

On that happy image, I remain,

Dad/Geoff