Lake Management Plan
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Questions? |
Fish Lake Total Phosphorus Phosphorus is the limiting nutrient in lakes, meaning that plants and algae need it to grow, and the amount of plants and algae present in the lake depends on how much phosphorus is available. Generally, the less phosphorus in the lake, the better the water quality for recreation. more information on total phosphorus Fish Lake has been monitored from 2003 to 2007 at site 201. The average total phosphorus is 12 ppb. Fish lake has the best water quality in the Pelican Group of Lakes. One reason is that it does not have any direct stream inlet discharging into it. Pelican Lake is attached, but the phosphorus in that water is already diluted by the time it reaches Fish Lake. The south bay of Fish Lake (Echo Bay) is some of the only shoreline in the Pelican group of lakes that is still undeveloped. It is not sandy, but is lined with reeds and cattails, which make excellent habitat for aquatic animals and fish. Due to a new development project in this area, site 202 was monitored in 2007 to get a good picture of baseline water quality. In the future, these results can be compared to the water quality during and after construction to see if there is any change. |
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2007 Results
In 2007, Sites 201 and 202 were monitored for total phosphorus. The results were similar. Fish Lake has the best water quality (lowest phosphorus in the Pelican Group of Lakes). The average total phosphorus for 2007 was 13.6, which is higher than the historical average of 12.
Table 2. 2007 total phosphorus results
| Site | Mean total phosphorus (ppb) | Min total phosphorus (ppb) | Max total phosphorus (ppb) |
| 201 | 13.6 | 10 | 14 |
| 202 | 15.9 | 9 | 34 |
Site 201
2007 total phosphorus results are in the figure below. The phosphorus concentration was fairly constant all season. This makes sense because there is no stream inlet in Fish Lake, and Site 201 is near where boats go by on their way to Big Pelcan Lake, mixing up the water.
Historical total phosphorus results (2003-2007) are in the figure below.
Site 202
There was a spike in phosphorus on May 24, which is probably due to spring turnover. The rest of the season, the phosphorus levels were low. Echo Bay does not get much boat traffic and is sheltered. Boat traffic can tend to churn up the water, remixing phosphorus from the bottom of the lake back into the water column.
