Washington making plans to remove goldfish from West Medical Lake
Jun. 24—Washington fisheries officials are making plans to poison West Medical Lake this fall to get rid of illegally stocked fish.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a news release last week that illegally introduced goldfish, pumpkinseed sunfish and other species are causing problems for the lake's trout population and need to be removed using rotenone, a naturally occurring piscicide commonly used to remove undesirable fish.
A public meeting is scheduled for Wednesday evening to discuss the plans.
Kenneth Behen, WDFW's warmwater fish program manager, said in the release that the treatment is needced to restore the lake's popular trout fishery.
"These fish compete with stocked trout fry, sometimes prey on them or otherwise disturb habitat rendering our trout stocking efforts ineffective," Behen said.
WDFW is taking public comment on the proposal through July 12. A final decision is expected in July, and the rotenone treatment would happen in the fall after the lake's fishing season closes.
West Medical Lake has long been a popular trout fishery, and WDFW stocks brown and rainbow trout there each year.
Illegal fish introductions have caused problems for trout production for decades, according to documents detailing the agency's plans. In recent years, goldfish have been the biggest problem, and the agency found that anglers are having low catch rates for trout and that stocking trout fry won't be enough to restore the fishery.
A rotenone treatment was done in 2018, but goldfish are still present in the lake.
Rotenone is derived from the roots of tropical plants, according to WDFW, and it's an EPA-approved piscicide. WDFW has used it for more than 70 years.
It kills organisms with gills, but some species, such as goldfish, have a higher tolerance for the chemical than others.
Wednesday's public meeting will be held at WDFW's Spokane Valley office beginning at 6 p.m. It will also be streamed online via Microsoft Teams.
