Fish kill not major concern at LoP

Fish have died at Lake of the Prairies this spring, but Manitoba government officials are not expecting it to significantly impact lake populations moving forward.

With an expectation of a heavy spring runoff "we drew the reservoir down," said Steve Topping, executive director with Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation, noting water was reduced to near pre-dam levels, which left some fish caught in pools away from the deeper river channel.

Topping said the lake was taken to a similar level in 2011, "but we didn't get a fish kill that year."

Topping said the reason fish died this year was predominantly because of the "delayed melt." He said the snow melt was three weeks later than anticipated, and that left some fish in oxygen-depleted water in small pools.

"It was probably a record delay melt from what we can tell," he said.

The problem was made worse because of continued snow cover on the ice which reduced sunlight penetration to the water where it could have stimulated photo synthesis, and thus generated oxygen for the fish, added Topping.

The late melt and snow cover combined to kill pockets of fish, said Topping, adding there was a similar die off in 1997.

After the 1997 losses "we didn't see any impact on the reservoir fishery," said Topping.

As for the low water levels, Topping said the lake is expected to refill in the coming days.

"We are forecasting a significant inflow into the lake," he said, adding as of Monday the reservoir level was rising 1.5-feet per day. " It's rising very rapidly," he said. " We're forecasting the reservoir will fill, but not go over the spillway."