The King Laker Repro.

[adkbrookie]

last night while i was setting u my new ice shelter i was listening to NPR in the garage and they had some guy on there who was talking about a bunch of different environmentally related stuff. one thing he said was that the lake trout in lake george had stopped reproducing for a while due to the dirt raods being sprayed with oils containing pcbs and the pcbs running off into the lake. kind of like with the bald eagles egg shells cracking. just thought that some of you might find this interesting and was wondering if anyone else had heard about it.

[AirManCam]

I haven't heard a thing about it Woody, but its deffiantly an interesting topic, we'll have to check it out more!

[Wellsy]

I don't know if there is any truth to that or not.
Could something like that have happened 40 years ago? Maybe!!!
But I do know that they watch all contruction and excavating activities on lake George very closely. Not just LG either, I was shut down this summer on Schroon for having a track skid to close to the water front for less than a day without having all the sausage buoys, silt screens etc.etc. Our paper work was in order but we didn't have the necessary spill response gear.
So it could be true, but NY is doing a pretty good job on protecting the waters in the ADK's.
Even if it means I get a slap for not being up to snuff.
And I don't know spec for spraying roads in that area, but they usually spray liquid calcium on sites like that to keep dust down

[JJ]

Wellsy is right, this happened years ago, but the chemical responsible was DDT; it was used to kill black flies and mosquitoes I believe.  DDT was also responsible for decreased reproduction in bald eagles.  Lake trout are reproducing fine on Lake George, they haven't been stocked since 1987, have even seen a few bald eagles the past couple years.
As a side note, I can remember the trucks would spray the oil on the dirt roads on Assembly Point when I was a kid, same roads we played on, rode bikes, etc.

[Bartman44]

I saw this photo some time ago in National Geographic. Found it easily on their search engine. It always cracks me up.   

Here's the caption from the article "An Ill Wind"

A cloud of the insecticide DDT billows over the beach—and beachgoers—in 1945 as part of a mosquito-control program at New York's Jones Beach State Park. Used in Europe to ward off bug-borne disease during World War II, DDT was once hailed as a miracle product. This photograph was published in the October 1945 GEOGRAPHIC article "Your New World of Tomorrow." But by the time "tomorrow" came, evidence showed that the birds from sprayed areas accumulated high levels of DDT, damaging their ability to reproduce. Other research pointed to the chemical as a human carcinogen. Use of DDT was banned in the United States in 1972. 

[coldbum]

Thats a crazy pic., sort of like GIs like my pop working with Agent Orange in Vietnam.

All chemicals are the next best thing untill the long term effects kick in.

I am sure we are only just starting to see humanities impact on our Environment

[Robb]

4th Lake in Inlet has a problem with DDT, the DOH says for lake trout eat NONE due to DDT and mercury. I'm sure the DDT was used heavily for the black flys and mosquitos up there. The lakers up there are very healthy looking.

Robb

[adkbrookie]

 i think a friend of mine who is a retired forest ranger said that they dumped brales of different stuff into fourth lake when you couldn't use the ddt anymore. i do remember now that he guy on the radio said it was for the bugs. all this took place a wile ago, not recently.

[deadsmelthead]

4th Lake in Inlet has a problem with DDT, the DOH says for lake trout eat NONE due to DDT and mercury. I'm sure the DDT was used heavily for the black flys and mosquitos up there. The lakers up there are very healthy looking.

Robb

Yeah, from what I hear from the locals up there years ago the nimrods dropped the unused 50 gallon drums in the lake and they are still there. I guess they do not want to disturb them for fear they will burst open and really create a mess. The thing I can't figure out is in 4th the lakers and the Land locks are usually found fairly close with each other on that  no eating advisory for them though.

[Robb]

Yeah, from what I hear from the locals up there years ago the nimrods dropped the unused 50 gallon drums in the lake and they are still there. I guess they do not want to disturb them for fear they will burst open and really create a mess. The thing I can't figure out is in 4th the lakers and the Land locks are usually found fairly close with each other on that  no eating advisory for them though.

I'm pretty sure it's because the lakers live WAY longer than the salmon and it has a cumulative affect. Nice lakers up there too, it's a shame.
Robb

[deadsmelthead]

I'm pretty sure it's because the lakers live WAY longer than the salmon and it has a cumulative affect. Nice lakers up there too, it's a shame.
Robb

Good point