June 3, 2013 Water Monitoring Report

Today's average in-lake water clarity was 4.2 feet, and was courtesy of a massive zooplankton bloom.  It is massive in that zooplankton are very large, some large enough to see while standing in a boat, and massive in the number of individual tiny animals.  Large zooplankton are very efficient algae eating machines, and graze algae faster than it can reproduce. These zooplankton are feeding the walleye hatchery fish, not to mention yellow perch fry, and many others.  Soon the rapidly growing young fish will drive down the population of large zooplankton and algae will begin to dominate.

Water temperature was 67-70 degrees.

A Water Flea, or Daphnia, like this one from Lake Puckaway is a welcome sight.
Water Fleas eat large amounts of algae, and provide food for young fish.