Fish Fry Lake: Perspectives from an Inventor on the Application of Created Floating Islands for Water Quality Renovation

Abstract

Today Fish Fry Lake is a highly productive wild fishery, and also a long-term experiment tracking how the resource of nonpoint nutrient-loaded water can be optimally managed. The Fish Fry Lake story has relevance to water stewardship across much of the developed world where water quality is impacted by agricultural-based nutrient loading. Fish Fry Lake is located on the east side of Yellowstone County in south-central Montana. The lake covers 6.5 surface acres, is 28 feet deep at its deepest point, and contains about 55 acre-feet of water at full pool. Groundwater influenced by agriculture infiltrates to the lake and discharges at a typical rate of 65-85 gallons per minute. When the lake was converted from a seasonal pond to a perennial one in 2005, it displayed the typical attributes of a eutrophic waterway. The lake surface was occasionally completely covered with filamentous blue-green algae, with occasional patches of cyanobacteria.