According to the report of Memes, the National Park Service has been trapped in a struggle with lake trout (also known as Lake Red Point) for decades. This is an invasive fish with very strong appetite. It has destroyed and subverted the previously prosperous ecosystem of Yellowstone Lake. According to the latest research, using a green laser pointer instrument mounted on an airplane, it is possible to provide a faster way to locate and capture non-native fish within a few weeks of spawning in shallow water.
The instrument uses a laser-based green laser pointer technology (LiDAR) to help lake managers catch invasive fish over a wide area at a lower cost, thereby making more efficient use of annual squid control in lakes. Approximately $2 million in funding.
In a recent study published in the Optical Association (OSA) magazine Applied Optics, the researchers reported the results of a series of flight tests that successfully located the location of the lake trout and identified previously unknown spawning areas. They showed that the technology could find two or more lake trouts that snorkeled 15 meters below the surface of the water.
“The key issue to be addressed in our research is to find a way to determine the spawning position of the invading lake trout so that fish biologists can apply various methods to reduce the proliferation of fish stocks,” Montana State University Joseph A. Shaw said, “There are several other ways to track these fish, such as sonic sensing, but the aircraft can cover a larger area of the lake waters in a shorter period of time than the ship.”
Lidar (LiDAR) has been used to track fish in marine ecosystems, but this is the first time it has been used to study fish in lakes, where the water in the lake is more turbid.
In addition, while other green laser pointer applications require expensive, complex equipment, Montana State University engineers have developed less than $100,000 in new instruments and are optimized to run on single-engine aircraft with a daily cost of flight. The $500 makes it a practical solution for ecologists and local fisheries and water managers.
“Our relatively low-cost, small-sized lidar system can be used for other types of ecological research, such as plankton mapping and plumes from underwater vents,” Shaw said. “It’s hard to get far from the ground. The lake can now be easily mapped and researched in one day.”
Located in the heart of Yellowstone Park, Yellowstone Lake has always been popular with fishermen, especially grizzly bears, vultures, otters and other wildlife. Since the introduction of non-native lake trout in the 1990s, the intricate ecological balance of the region has been greatly disrupted.
Lake trout prey on native cut-throat trout in the lake, and cut-throat trout has historically been an important source of food for many top carnivores. With the increase in the population of lake trout, the number of cut-throat catfish has decreased dramatically, dropping by 90% between 2000 and 2005. This greatly reduces the food supply for bears, birds and other animals. These animals are not able to prey on invading lake trout because the lake trout lives in deep water most of the time, unlike cut throat fish.
In order to extinguish the number of lake trout and give the cut-throated squid a chance to recover, among other methods, lake managers also use the gill net to fish during the spawning season of the lake trout. Although this method is very effective, it is more important to know when the lake trout is laying eggs.
In order to locate the fish, biologists are currently implanting sonic emitters in individual fish and then tracking them in the lake and on the ship’s receiver, which is a time consuming and labor intensive process and does not completely cover the invasion. The location of the fish.