Fish and Game completes fish surveys following quagga mussel treatment
The pre-treatment fish survey was completed over a two-day period, just days before the start of the treatment on October 3, 2023.
The majority of the fish sampled in pretreatment surveys were largemouth bass, yellow perch, various sunfish species, and smallmouth bass. Other sampled fish included common carp, largescale suckers and northern pikeminnow.
No white sturgeon were sampled because electrofishing is generally ineffective for this species. However, the Idaho Power Company completed a sturgeon survey in this same reach of river in 2022, and the results of that survey were used by Fish and Game biologists for a pretreatment population estimate. It was estimated that the white sturgeon population in this reach included 49 fish greater than two feet long.
Treatment impacts to fish
As was anticipated, large numbers of fish mortalities were observed on the river within two days of the start of the mussel-killing treatment.
Most of the fish mortalities were largescale suckers, northern pikeminnow, common carp and yellow perch. Fish and Game surveyed the river for fish mortalities throughout the treatment, and within a few days examined approximately 3,500 dead fish. Very few had been marked during pretreatment surveys, suggesting large populations of these non-game species.
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