Hydrilla: Hype or Horror?
USSFN: 1/18/03 - I'm convinced that all one has to do is to put a group of Toledo Bend anglers and some environmentalists together and you're in for some heated words. No, the problem isn't over daily limits or minimum lengths, but rather the culprit is an aquatic plant called Hydrilla.
Hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata)
is commonly found in various parts of Asia, Australia, and Africa.
Someone, in their infinite wisdom, decided it would make a good aquarium
plant back in the Sixties. It seemed like the perfect aquatic plant.
It can survive and thrive in almost any type of water, light conditions,
and is for the most part weather, pollution, and chemical resistant.
One of these aquarium owners might have dumped their aquarium, plants and
all, into a Florida waterway. Soon Hydrilla plants were popping up
all over Florida. Initially, fishermen were thrilled with this new
underwater cover for game fish. The thrill soon became a nightmare
for some.
These plants can grow to the waters surface creating a beautiful flowery carpet. The cover it provides for the fish is excellent, or so it would seem. Anglers at Toledo Bend on the Texas/Louisiana border love the Hydrilla as bass tend to hold up here. This is especially true in the hottest part of the season when bass seek cooler water either found under similar cover or by going deep. These same anglers are now in an angered state because this cover is disappearing at an alarming rate. Meanwhile, in some northern states, where the Hydrilla has managed to migrate, lake owners are fed up with this plant life.
The facts are that this plant takes over a lake. Initially, the
fish find a happy home here until the plants spread to the majority of
the lake. At this point, the negative aspects of this plant take
over. First, the Hydrilla actually uses more oxygen than it provides
and lowers the levels that would have normally been provided by other
aquatic plants. Second, these flowery mats can foul propellers and
can become tangled around swimmers with recorded stem lengths of up to 55
feet. They are a major problem for
water filtration plants as they clog up everything...especially water
intakes. The state of Florida has spent hundreds of millions of
dollars trying to contain or eliminate this nuisance plant from her
waterways to little avail. Raking or mowing a lake helps the problem
to some extent, but the plant can reproduce from clippings, too. The
plants can show up in bilge water, on propellers, and boat hulls and
trailers. Because of this, the Hydrilla has found it's way into most
southern bodies of water to varying extents.
In Texas, the city of Austin has actually posted a warning of a $2000 fine for transporting this plant. The problem worsens when you consider that certain species of fish can't survive with the lower oxygen levels. Water draw downs have little effect. Chemicals that can kill off the plants are available but at an enormous price. It would cost millions to attempt to clean up a decent sized lake(I recall seeing the figure $1 million per 10 acres). I guess that when you're a southern bass fisherman, the cover is more important than the associated problems resulting from the Hydrilla. The bass love it and it's much easier to find the fish there rather than fishing stumps. There doesn't seem to be an easy answer here that would benefit everyone. Grass carp could feed on it, but it is illegal to introduce them. Native aquatic plants can be re-introduced once the foreign invader is gone, but again the project could be expensive. Meanwhile, the political war rages on over this with no compromise in sight. I just hope that officials don't resort to treating the lake with poison to the extent that this great sportfishing area suffers. The economic devastation would be widespread. ~ Jim