That parasite is dependent on water temperature and level. Imo the annual NPN cull will benefit Cultus Sockeye numbers down the road. I'd like to see that cull twice a year instead of once.
Parasite is always in the lake... just gets worse with temp and water levels.
The fish always use to get it, but weren't in the lake long enough (during normal run timing) to perish from it.
The pikeminnow cull, while it does help is not the real problem.
Besides the NPN derby is nothing compared to what we were taking out of the lake with the boat which they took off the lake this yr.
Some days we would get 1000-1200 A SET (and I have to sort through all those little buggers and cut em)
The Eurasian Milfoil is the main cause of all the problems.
1) It is covering much of the once used spawning grounds.
2) Pikeminnow have ALWAYS been in the lake, the milfoil gave juveniles a place to hide from larger cannibalistic adults. Therefore adults have less food and move to other fish (cultus sockeye smolts which swim in upper water column and are easy to ambush from the milfoil below). Also now more juveniles make it to adulthood.
3) Milfoil gives cover and ambush areas for the larger pikeminnow.
Eliminate the milfoil and the lake goes back to normal... kind of, except for all the oil slicks all over the water.
They were looking at ways to introduce a weevil to take out the milfoil, but they couldn't find a native one in the lake to culture.
Just another example of how humans screw ecosystems up.
Cheers,
Dan