Environment: July 2008 Archives

Six Lake County lakes have experienced die-offs of hundreds of carp. And this is a bad thing?

Granted, Countryside, Wooster and Fish lakes have had a few hundred crappie die, so let's get to the bottom of those. But why are fish biologists worried about bottom feeders that most anglers dislike.

Carp have been eradicated in several county lakes, Diamond Lake in Mundelein being one, and replaced by game fish. It's not like carp are the "canaries in the coal mines" here.

The Hound remembers attempts by several state DNRs to have anglers embrace carp as a fine game fish and excellent eating fish (watch that mud vein) if smoked or grilled after sitting overnight in a marinade.

Ever see carp served at a Friday night fish fry around here? Exactly. Slab crappie, now there's good eating.

What's with the people of Wisconsin who live along Lake Michigan and treat it like a garbage dump? Right now nobody's blaming the cheeseheads, but a bunch of garbage washed up along the lake's western shore, in the Holland, Mich., and Manistee, Mich., areas. But, some of the garbage carried names and addresses from Wisconsin, according to an Associated Press account.

Beaches were closed and three truckloads of garbage, including prescription drug bottles, hypodermic needles and household rubbish were hauled away to a real landfill, not a liquid one. This surely frosts The Hound. Hey, we drink this stuff!

Besides junk, Wisconsinites have been known to dump their sewage into Lake Michigan every time it rains. How about they fix their sewage systems? Then, they can concentrate on what to do with their garbage.

The Coast Guard is investigating the dumping of the hundreds of pounds of garbage. Let's hope they find out who's responsible.