State officials are repairing an electric fish barrier in Lost Island Lake, which is near Ruthven in northwest Iowa. Mike Hawkins, a fisheries biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says the barrier is targeting a fish that’s considered a nuisance.
Lost Island Lake is just 16 feet deep. Hawkins says carp destroy native aquatic plants and increase sediment in the water by rooting around the bottom of a lake.
Over the past several years the D-N-R has stocked Lost Island Lake with walleye, northern pike and even large mouth bass.
But Hawkins says they’re incredibly effective and use a fairly low amount of electricity to create the electrical field in the water to keep the fish from swimming. Over time, though, the water causes erosion damage on the electrodes. Hawkins and his team began replacing those electrodes Thursday.
