Tag Archives: Missisquoi

Government Shutdown Affects Lake Champlain

How The Government Shutdown Affects Lake Champlain

The recent federal government shutdown has affected millions across the country, and the impact is being felt on Lake Champlain as well. Here are some of the impacts:

Government Shutdown Affects Lake ChamplainThe EPA’s (Environmental Protection Agency) new phosphorus reduction budget for Lake Champlain – TMDL or Total Maximum Daily Load. (See “Cleaner Water” article) was scheduled to be released in draft form later this month, but it’s not clear that they’ll be able to do it because of the shutdown. The draft plan will likely call for additional regulations on roads, stormwater permits, agricultural lands, and floodplain development, but authority for new regulations and funding for incentives has to be approved by the Vermont legislature, which doesn’t reconvene until January. The longer the draft plan is delayed, the less time the legislature will have to review and absorb requirements set forth in it.

Fall is the time for developing budget priorities for the state and federal government. The Lake Champlain Basin Program Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) identifies priority projects for funding. However, a half-dozen members of that body are federal employees who are furloughed and unable to participate in the process during the shutdown. The absence of their valuable knowledge and experience severely limits the TAC’s ability to outline the most critical immediate next steps in managing the lake.

Although Vermont’s duck hunting season began on October 9, one of the more popular hunting locations on Lake Champlain may not be open to the public this year. The Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge in Franklin County Vermont has been closed as a result of the shutdown. No hunting or fishing is allowed in the refuge during the shutdown, and the Visitor Center has been shuttered.

Read the Lake Champlain Committee’s analysis of how the government shutdown affects Lake Champlain here…

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Related Articles:

Alburgh, Vermont – an Exclave

Alburgh, Vermont

 

Map of Alburgh, Vermont, USA

Map of Alburgh, Vermont, USA

Although considered part of the Lake Champlain Islands, Alburgh, Vermont is not on an island. It is, in fact, a peninsula of land that extends southward from Quebec into Lake Champlain. The Alburgh Peninsula (also known as the Alburgh Tongue) has the distinction of being reachable by land only through Canada.

Alburgh shares this distinction with only two other places in the United States – Point Roberts, Washington, and the Northwest Angle in Minnesota. Unlike the other two cases, this isn’t really significant any more since there are bridges to provide access to the peninsula from within the United States. These bridges connect the town to Rouse’s Point, New York, West Swanton, Vermont and North Hero, Vermont.

There is a fourth bridge connecting Alburgh to Isle LaMotte, Vermont, but Isle LaMotte is an island without any other connection to land other than that bridge.

Province Point boundary marker

Province Point boundary marker

 

Province Point, Alburgh, Vermont

Province Point Boundary marker

Province Point, Alburgh, Vermont

Just to the northeast of the east shore of Alburgh is the southernmost tip of a small promontory roughly 2 acres in size (45.013351°N 73.193257°W).The promontory is cut through by the US-Canadian border making the area an exclave of the United States contiguous with Canada.

An exclave is a territory legally or politically attached to a territory with which it is not physically contiguous. In this case Province Point is a part of the United States although it is not physically connected to the U.S.

Map of Missisquoi Bay showing exclave of Province Point, Alburgh, Vermont

Map of Missisquoi Bay showing exclave of Province Point, Alburgh, Vermont

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is the story of one of Vermont’s
most famous citizens.Written by
Willard Sterne Randall this book
sheds a new light on one of
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Buy Ethan Allen: 
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More Articles About Alburgh, Vermont:

45th Parallel Towns: Alburgh, Vermont

Fort Montgomery: From Blunder to Ruin

45th Parallel Towns of the Lake Champlain Valley

Another Alburgh, Vt Sunset (photo)

Lake Champlain Vacation Rentals

Lake Champlain: Alburgh, VT looking north

Fishing In A Winter Wonderland

 

Fishing In A Winter Wonderland

By Captain Mickey Maynard of Lake Champlain Angler Fishing Charters

 

 

The Lake Champlain ice fishing season usually begins around early December when bays and passages on the north end of the lake first freeze. Fishermen gather at some of these early spots like the Veterans’ Memorial Bridge connecting Rouses Point, New York and Alburg, Vermont. Other early spots include Missisquoi Bay, the bridge at Hog Island, and Kings and Catfish Bays on the New York side. Keep in mind that the best fishing occurs on newly frozen areas, so wise anglers will follow the ice as it progresses. All of these spots will freeze before the adjacent broad lake, creating excellent perch fishing conditions. Of course care should be taken when fishing on the relatively thin ice in these circumstances.

As the colder weather sets in, the ice makes its way south. Some of the next good areas to consider include the bridge at Isle La Motte and the cliffs at Alburg. By this time Monty’s Bay with its several holding areas and Deep Bay at the Point Au Roche State Park are heating up. On the Vermont side the “Gut” is now holding fish too. By the time Algonquin Bay is frozen on the New York side most of the lake north of Malletts Bay has closed on the Vermont side as well. Areas to the south like the narrows at Ti, Bulwagga Bay, Port Henry, and Whalons Bay also begin to freeze at about the same time. Converse and Arnold Bays are now worth checking on the Vermont side. Many of the spots mentioned thus far are good perch or pike locations.

As the deeper water freezes, the smelt fishing heats up. Port Henry, Westport and Willsboro Bay are all good smelt fishing locations. Shanties are available for rent out of Port Henry and Westport and at Port Henry a taxi operates to usher the fishermen on and off the ice or from one to another of the numerous shanty towns that cluster over the hot spots.

If cold weather persists, the lake on occasion will close over at its deepest and widest spot, between Burlington and Port Kent. When this happens everybody’s favorite perch spot is open for business: Plattsburgh Bay. Areas around Valcour Island, accessed from Peru Dock, can also be productive. The sand bottom south of the lower mouth of the Au Sable River is a good area to fish for salmon and big perch. Willsboro Bay is also a good location for these species. On the Vermont side, Shelburne and Malletts Bay are great spots to pursue big perch and salmon.

US Coast Guard Captain Mickey Maynard has over 40 years of experience fishing and guiding on Lake Champlain. His charter service, Lake Champlain Angler Fishing Charters, caters to New York and Vermont anglers alike with numerous points of rendezvous across the wide expanse of this 120 mile-long world class fishery.  The Captain welcomes one and all to join him aboard his fleet of specialized vessels to tackle a long list of cold-water or warm-water species that inhabit Lake Champlain. For more information and to book trips, contact Captain Mick at (518) 578-9273 or www.lakechamplainangler.com.

This post originally appeared on Eric LaMontagne’s Think You Know Champlain? blog for Lake Champlain International (LCI). Support them in their efforts to protect our lake!

Muskellunge Are Back!!!!!!

Lake Champlain is the only lake in New England to which muskellunge (muskie)are native.
According to the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, the largest Muskellunge caught and recorded in Vermont was a 38.22 lbs fish taken on September 9, 2005 from the Missisquoi River by Chris Beebe.
Vermont Fish & Wildlife – Fish Transport Vehicle

 

This year ECHO Lake Aquarium & Science Center partnered with Vermont Fish & Wildlife to acquire several juvenile muskie to display in an exhibit in the near future. 
The muskie originated from eggs taken from wild brood stock collected in April, 2012 on Lake Chautauqua in western New York State. 
New York Department of Environmental Conservation’s Chautauqua Hatchery, located  on Lake Chautauqua in Mayville NY, hatched the eggs and grew them to 4 inches for release.  
Currently, the few juveniles at ECHO are 6 ½ months old, but many thousands more were released into Lake Champlain on August 22, 2012.
Juvenile Muskie Ready for Release

 

The released muskie are expected to attain 10 to 12 inches before winter sets in and their growth slows. 

In the hatchery, they have been fed exclusively a formulated pellet diet, but once they switch over to live prey in the lake, their growth rates will be very high. 

In the last 4 years, Vermont Fish & Wildlife have stocked a total of 25,000 of these fish into the lower Missisquoi River and Missisquoi Bay in an attempt to restore a viable muskellunge population to Lake Champlain.   

Here are the actual stocking numbers provided by the Vermont Fish & Wildlife:
Year             #of fish      
2008            250
2009           10,000
2010           0
2011           5,300
2012           8,800
We invite you to come visit the Upper Animal Care (UAC) window on the top floor at ECHO where we have 2 juvenile muskie on display. Come watch them grow!

A Dinosaur Among Us- The Lake Sturgeon

A Dinosaur Among Us- The Lake Sturgeon

 

Like Elvis, dinosaurs are not dead.

A Dinosaur Among Us- The Lake SturgeonDon’t believe me? Well, it’s true…sort of. While they may not be ‘dinosaurs’ per say, they are really really REALLY old.

I’m talking, of course, about Acipenser fulvescens, or the Lake sturgeon as everyone who isn’t trying to sound smart (cough cough) calls it.

A Brief Biology Lesson

As I mentioned, sturgeon are a very old species; fossils have been aged at over 60 million years old. This is evident in that sturgeons do not have calcium-based bones or vertebrae, but rather have a cartilaginous notochord. The only other fish species in the world that still maintains this bone structure are the lamprey.

Lake sturgeons are benthic (bottom) feeders that typically reside over the mud, sand, and gravel of large lakes and rivers. They commonly grow to a length of 3-5 feet and tip the scales anywhere from 20 to 80 pounds. Outside of the Northeastern US, they have been recorded in excess of 7 feet long and weighing more than 300lbs. Lake sturgeon are omnivorous, eating virtually anything that is remotely edible. Prowling the bottom, they use barbels to feel for something tasty. Upon finding something, the fish protrudes its tube-like mouth, sucks the food in, and simply spits out what it doesn’t want.

When sturgeons reproduce in the spring, they put on a show. Groups of adults come together along rocky river banks to perform rituals that include full body rolls, slapping the surface with their tails, and launching themselves completely out of the water. A female can produce 100,000 to 800,000 eggs at a time, which get locked between the rocks as they flow downstream.

Lake sturgeons are one of the longest-living freshwater fish; the oldest on record is 154 years old. This means they are also one of the slowest to reach sexual maturity. It takes nearly 15 years before a female sturgeon can reproduce.

It’s a Hard-Knock Life

Life hasn’t been very kind to the Lake sturgeon. At one time, they were so plentiful in Lake Champlain, they were considered a trash fish. They were a nuisance that fouled up the nets of fisherman trawling for salmon, which were also abundant at the time (notice a theme here?).  Believe it or not, some reports say that in the mid-1800’s, people would catch them to use as fertilizer, or to dry and burn in the winter!

Around 1880, people came to the realization that Lake sturgeon actually tasted pretty good when smoked. Additionally, the discover of isinglass, a gelatinous material found in their swim bladder and used broadly in the culinary world, brought significant fishing pressure on them. By the turn of the century, catch rates had dropped by 80%.

To make matters worse, the sturgeon was dealt a one-two punch of urban and agricultural development. Newly erected dams blocked them from their spawning grounds; toxic PCBs from urban areas caused high death rates; and algae blooms feeding on farm run off sucked the oxygen out of the water.  Catch numbers continued to dwindle until, in 1967, it was closed for good.

Look On The Sunny Side

Lake sturgeons are currently listed as endangered in Lake Champlain, but awareness of this special species is gaining. While no modern stocking program exists for them in Lake Champlain, agencies continue to keep a close eye on them. It is believed that, while slow, the population is rebounding and with proper management of habitat, a stocking program may not be necessary. Genetic sampling has shown that there is a naturally reproducing population that is large enough not to be experiencing any genetic crossover.

 

For more information, please see these links:

http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/26035.html

http://genome-lab.ucdavis.edu/publications/Welsh_et_al_2008.pdf

http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/library/Reports_and_Documents/Fish_and_Wildlife/Spawning_Habitat_Suitability_for_Walleye_and_Lake_Sturgeon_in_the_Missisquoi_River.pdf

 

The post A Dinosaur Among Us- Think You Know Champlain? appeared first on Lake Champlain International.