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Hatchery bass to repopulate 3 lakes
By ALEX LEARY, Times Staff Writer FLORAL CITY -- When heavy rain pounded west-central Florida last fall, it brought welcome relief to the parched terrain. But as the massive Green Swamp filled, a killer was unleashed. The overflow entered the Withlacoochee River, which runs north from the swamp, and killed thousands of fish because the stagnant water was devoid of oxygen. Nowhere else, perhaps, was the damage more severe than the Floral City Pool, a part of the Tsala Apopka lake chain that is fed by the Withlacoochee through the Leslie Hefer canal. When biologists surveyed the damage in February, they noticed no mature largemouth bass had survived. "We don't know how many died, but it was thousands," said Jerry Krummrich, fisheries director of the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's office in Lake City. Next Wednesday, the pool will be flush with new life. Krummrich will oversee the release of 50,000 hatchery-raised largemouth into the three lakes that make up the Floral City Pool. "We'll look for grassy beds where they have some cover," he said. "Somewhere out in the (middle) so they can start heading in all directions." The 11/2-inch fish, grown at Richloam Fish Hatchery in Sumter County, are being released during the normal spawning time so they will have a full growing season. The fish should remain in the Floral City Pool because there are water control structures at the main exit points. It will be at least two years before the survivors reach the 14-inch minimum size they must be for anglers to take them home. "I'm happy about it, but I am worried if the lake is going to have enough water to sustain them," said Floral City resident Bill Kampmeyer, who has not caught a bass in months. "We need a lot of rain." The Green Swamp consists of 870 square miles of wetlands and uplands in central Florida, including parts of Pasco, Polk, Hernando and Sumter counties. It serves as the headwaters of four major rivers: Ocklawaha, Withlacoochee, Peace and Hillsborough. During the course of 24 hours one day last October, 5 inches of rain fell in the swamp, which had been stressed by the drought and filled with dead vegetation. What water was already in the swamp was devoid of oxygen and flushed into the Withlacoochee. "Even though there was water in the stream that had oxygen, the two of them combined so much that the fish started to go," said Marty Kelly, an expert with the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Fish generally need 4 to 5 parts per million of oxygen in the water to survive; stagnant swamp water can contain as little as 0 parts per million. As a result, thousands died along the Withlacoochee, said Lt. Dewey Weaver, a spokesman for the fish commission. The fish included redear sunfish, bluegill and gar. Biologists did not know the extent of the problem until February, when post-drought water levels were starting to return to normal. To survey fish, they used a device that sends electricity through the water, stunning the fish and making them rise to the surface. While there were enough of the other species to repopulate the lakes, there were no largemouth bass. "The fish that would spawn just got wiped out," Krummrich said. So he made an emergency request with the fish hatchery, whose stock is limited. Of the 50,000 bass to be released, as many as 70 percent, or 35,000, will survive predators, from bowfins to herons.
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