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The waters in and around Torch Lake are improving but there are still many concerns that need to be addressed.
That was the message at a public meeting Wednesday hosted by the Houghton-Keweenaw Conservation District.
Torch Lake Watershed Project Manager Meral Jackson says the community needs to take a role in cleaning up the lake. “People in the community need to get involved and contact their local representatives and ask them ‘how can I get involved?’, because the work for Torch Lake is done mostly with volunteer work.”
Two ongoing Beneficial Use Impairments (BUI) are fish consumption advisories and the health of the benthos, the biological community at the bottom of the lake.
Recent studies have shown the waters in the Western U.P. have about 20 percent higher mercury levels than those downstate, a remnant of the area’s mining history.
And there is an unusually high concentration in Torch Lake. This is thought to be a result of the natural recovery process of the surrounding wetlands and the methylation of mercury.
Michigan Tech Professor of Biological Sciences Dr. Charles Kerfoot says half the fish in the lake are not fit for human consumption.
“In 2013, they took good-sized samples, 20 fish or so, from Torch Lake and, you can see if plot it up that, given the new EPA standards, that, in fact, anything about 0.95 parts per million should not be consumed. That’s half of the walleye and the pike that should not be consumed.”
Kerfoot says if you catch a walleye or northern pike over 22 inches, just release those it.
“There’s no harm in doing catch and release. It may actually develop larger fish in the lake, too, trophy-sized fish.”
Smaller fish can be eaten as long as the public follows certain guidelines to limit their fish consumption.
Jackson says they don’t want people to stop eating the fish…just to be cautious.
“Fish are an excellent food source and we have mercury in all of our surface waters. It’s not just Torch Lake, and we have PCB’s all over Michigan, so it’s not that we’re unique in that aspect, it’s that we can eat fish safely but we have to know how much, which species and which sizes are the best to eat.”
Fish consumption guidelines can be found by contacting the Western U.P. Health Department or click here for the Eat Safe Fish program.
