Author: Robert Earl Lennon

Publisher:

Published: 1970

Total Pages: 116

ISBN-13:

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations commissioned the U.S. Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife to prepare a review of literature on the reclamation of ponds, lakes, and streams with fish toxicants. Total or partial reclamation of small ponds, especially fish production ponds, with general or selective toxicants is a very common practice. The eradication of undesirable fishes from public lakes and streams began over 60 years ago, but accelerated within the past two decades as wild waters increasingly required fish management and as improved toxicants became available. Toxicants such as the organochlorines and organophosphates, borrowed from agriculture, are being replaced with controls that are more specific to fish or more appropriately formulated for aquatic application. Formulations of rotenone and antimycin are the most used, general fish toxicants in the United States; TFM is a successful, selective toxicant for larval sea lampreys in tributaries to the Great Lakes; and Squoxin is in advanced stages of development as a selective toxicant for squawfishes in salmonid streams on the west coast of North America. The review of literature and a widely circulated questionnaire indicate that 27 countries, in addition to the United States, and Canada, have used or are using fish toxicants for the control of undesirable fishes. Indicated, too, is the need for much research on all aspects of reclamation -- on the biology of target fishes; on alternatives to chemical control; on safe, effective, and non-persistent toxicants; on formulations and dispensing apparatus to reach and kill target fishes with the least possible contamination of the environment; on controls that may be integrated with toxicants to enhance reclamations; and on methods and equipment for pre- and Post-treatment surveys and evaluations.