Probe wraps up at 84 Lakes
Volunteers help catch fish to be sorted at 84 Lakes Wednesday. After a discovery of Asian carp in 2014, the state Fish and Boat Commission began an investigation to sort the fish to weed out any invasive species of fish.
Bigmouth buffalo are native to the Ohio River and are illegal to possess in Pennsylvania because they are endangered. At least eight bigmouth buffalo were found in 84 Lakes and removed so the fish population genetics at other state waterways would not be compromised.
A Fish and Boat Commission conservation officer transports a fish Wednesday from the middle pond to the lower pond at 84 Lakes in Eighty Four. Several bigmouth buffalo were found and taken out of the pond, as well as invasive Asian carp.
EIGHTY FOUR – Volunteers waded through muck Wednesday at another drained pond in Somerset Township to capture any illegal fish, including the invasive Asian carp, as the state Fish and Boat Commission completed its investigation into the former pay lake.
It was the third and final pond the state ordered to be drained at 84 Lakes along Route 136, whose owner is expected to face more citations in the case as early as next week, Fish and Boat investigators said.
“We have been working very hard to keep the Asian carp out of Pittsburgh’s three rivers,” said Richard D. Lorson, an area fisheries manager for the commission who led the fish inventory Wednesday at 84 Lakes.
Lorson said the commission entered the case about three years ago after a Facebook post about an Asian carp being seen at the business. The carp are disrupting ecosystems because they are aggressive, grow fast and large and interfere with the food chain.
The commission didn’t find any of the invasive carp Wednesday, but it has pulled three others from the water here during the investigation. Two of the Asian carp weighed about 40 pounds each.
The commission also had pulled nine bigmouth buffalo from the middle pond Wednesday. The species is native to the Ohio River, endangered in Pennsylvania and illegal to possess in this state, Lorson said.
The bigmouths were allowed to die because it’s impossible to tell where they came from and they could possibly interfere with the genetics of those found in the Ohio River if they were introduced in that waterway. A dozen other bigmouths were pulled from the business when the lower pond was drained in late March. The commission also discovered two bigmouths when the upper pond was drained Friday, Lorson said.
The owner of 84 Lakes, Dennis Wilcher, 64, has been cited for operating a pay lake without a license, and he has several other citations from the commission that will be resolved after the inventory of the fish is completed, Lorson said.
Wilcher has not commented on the investigation, but he is cooperating with the commission in the case, Lorson said.
Asian carp have yet to be found in the Monongahela River, he said.
Agencies in other states have been netting them out of waterways to help prevent them from getting into the Great Lakes.
Efforts in Illinois have been successful in removing 150 tons of the carp this year, Lorson said.
Investigators have not determined how the illegal fish ended up at 84 Lakes, but its owner is ultimately the person the commission will hold responsible, Lorson said.
He said it’s possible for fish to escape the ponds, which are tributaries to Chartiers Creek. That creek spills into the Ohio River.
The fish inventory came to an end about 4 p.m. Wednesday, when lime was spread across the water that remained in the drained pond to kill anything the commission might have missed in the search, which involved men netting the fish in small boats in shallow water.
More than 600 common carp were captured in the middle pond Wednesday and released in the lower pond. Lorson said the search crew also found a few former pet goldfish in the water.