A pair of research projects this summer will evaluate the impact fishing tournaments and pollution are having on Lake Champlain’s sports fishery.
The Plattsburgh Press-Republican reports that the studies will be funded by two grants totaling nearly $130,000 from the Lake Champlain Basin Program.
The Lake Champlain Research Institute at Plattsburgh State will study the dispersal and survival rates of bass following catch-and-release fishing tournaments in 2011 and 2012. The study aims to address concern about the impact when fish are caught in locations all over the lake and released in a central location after they’re weighed. High numbers of bass washed up on shore after the 2009 tournament.
The Basin Program also awarded a grant to the BioDiversity Research Institute of Maine for a project to assess the concentration of mercury and PCBs in Lake Champlain’s sports fish. Funding for both projects comes from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.