Thank God for Tilapia

[Natural Lefty]

My wife and I went to the Yacht Club/Community Center Thursday afternoon, 5/23. The center was open with restrooms, after school programs and Zumba Dancing lessons, and quite a few people. Tilapia fishing was wide open on a dense school of the critters by the rocks in front of the Yacht Club. We ended up catching 36 Tilapia in about 3 hours, but the fishing was even better than that because it took me about 1/2 hour to figure out where the fish were, and my wife waited for the temps to start cooling down before she started fishing around 7 p.m. After she started, I mostly watched and helped her. I counted 6 times I caught 2 fish at the same time on the pole with two salmon egg hooks. The fish averaged around 1/2 pound I would say, not big but not too small. I think my wife Eunice caught about 10 of them in the last hour of fishing. They bit on both nightcrawler pieces and redworms equally well. After a while, the fish seemed to gather nearby where we were, so we simply casted out about 10 feet and felt the ravenous bites of the Tilapia within seconds nearly every time.

We didn't think of taking photos until after Eunice had been fishing for awhile. I took 3 photos which just happened to record a fish biting and her catching it. I will attach them here.

I think the state of California could have a commercial Tilapia fishery at the Salton Sea and maybe pay off some of its debt as there are so many countless millions of the critters there, and the water is actually very free of pollution even if it is murky.

[Lightning]

Thanks for the report. Sounds like fun.Is it cool to eat the fish caught there?

[Natural Lefty]

Yes, Lightning, the water is free of chemical pollution. They fish have some selenium which is a natural substance that is needed in trace amounts. There used to be limits on how much you could eat due to the selenium, but I think they took those off.

It's very fast action and a lot of fun. The 3 photos were taken in succession, as a fish bit when I took the first photo, so I took another photo when it was coming in, and the third after it had been landed. That was typical of how fast they were biting.

[DockRat]

I think the state of California could have a commercial Tilapia fishery at the Salton Sea and maybe pay off some of its debt as there are so many countless millions of the critters there, and the water is actually very free of pollution even if it is murky.

Here we go again.

#1 The Salton Sea is fed by the MOST Polluted River in North America.
Google ' New River Pollution '
#2 DFG has limits on how much polluted tilapia you can eat.
Something like 6 oz per week and not for preggo women.

It wasn’t until 1986 that California announced that everyone should restrict the consumption of fish caught in the Salton Sea for fear of their toxicity levels. By then however, the rest was history. The saline levels had spawned an algal bloom—a sudden increase in phytoplankton algae—that had a profound smell … some described it as rotten eggs, or (and this is my favorite) “puke on a hot sidewalk”. By the seventies the resorts and tourists were history, and it was relegated to use only as irrigating and a wildlife preserve—the latter largely because of the population boom that devoured all the wetlands in the Los Angeles area, and left migrating birds no better place to nest. It turned out to be a less than ideal wildlife preserve; in the nineties there were two separate events of mass bird deaths at the lake.

Presently there are a number of ambitious plans to try to save the Salton Sea. Birds still flock there, unaware of the dangerous chemicals of the water. Most people avoid it. It’s become so polluted that it’s a danger to eat anything that comes from it, and it’s a wildlife preserve.

http://www.damninteresting.com/sordi...he-salton-sea/

[DockRat]

Is it cool to eat the fish caught there?

LOL

[DockRat]

Yes, Lightning, the water is free of chemical pollution.

Where do you get your info ?
Take it from a guy that lived in Brawley.
DON'T EAT THE TOXIC TILAPIA.

This is a study of the problems facing the Salton Sea and it reaching sustainability. Located in the Imperial Valley, 130 miles east of San Diego, the Salton Sea is one of the lowest points in the United States at 227 feet below sea level. This brings the lake high temperatures which evaporate the water from the lake causing the salinity in the lake to increase at tremendous rates. Currently the lake is nearly 25% saltier than the ocean. Due to the short winters in the Imperial Valley, it is a prime spot for farming. The Salton Sea has become a sink for much of the agricultural runoff, especially from the New and Alamo Rivers. Such agricultural pollutants as selenium, DDT, DDE, and raw sewage have been found in the Salton Sea. These issues are becoming of major importance since there are tremendous numbers of fish dying off, and many birds (370 different species) who use this lake as a stopover point on their migration through the Pacific Flyway are dying at alarming numbers. If this gigantic salt lake (the largest inland body of water West of the Rocky Mountains with approximately 115 miles of shoreline) goes untreated, the pollution and salinity could have a tremendous impact on the wildlife in the Salton Sea. Currently the US Congress is discussing a bill in remembrance of the late Congressman Sonny Bono. Proposing $327 million dollars be spent on cleaning up the Salton Sea, the lake just might be saved yet.

How to Deal with Other Pollution

The New and Alamo Rivers, whose origins are in Mexico, have been found to be the main contributors of pollution to the Salton Sea. Such contaminants as selenium, untreated raw sewage, DDT, and DDE have all been found in the Salton Sea and traced to these rivers. The problem is that many of the contaminants that are being found in these rivers are outlawed in the US, however not in Mexico. Mexico�s regulations are not as stiff, and thus many contaminants are dumped into these rivers and transported to the US over the border and into the Salton Sea unregulated. (http://visearth.ucsd.edu/VisE_Int/ar...a_pollut2.html)

The obvious solution being implemented is the building of a treatment plant to filter the water in these rivers. The fear is that once these rivers are running with clean water, agriculture in Mexico is going to tap into this source and take the newly cleaned water for their farming operations. This is a problem because these rivers also bring much needed fresh water into the Salton Sea, thus reducing the salinity to a great extent. Without this water flowing into the Salton Sea, the salinity would probably have killed the lake by this point. (Orange County Register, 33)

http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~sustain/state/pleclair.html

[Stray Cat]

Just because the water is clear doesn't mean it's clean.

[Anglerism]

Thanks NL


I haven't gone this year but heard the big ones are now showing up.

Gotta get the giant cooler ready!!

-Anglerism

[Natural Lefty]

Dockrat, this is from a friend who works for the state Water Quality Control Board, who went fishing at the Salton Sea on Monday: "Actually, the tilapia here, well, at the northern locations, are cleaner than Perris or Diamond Valley's fishes." He also states that the fish are free of chemical pollution. Just because the water is clear somewhere, doesn't mean that it's pollution-free (although it does look nice), and just because the water is murky somewhere else and has fish die-offs due to the water being overloaded with nutrients, does not mean that it is polluted (although it looks yucky). I have also seen websites which list pollution levels at different waters, and the Salton Sea comes out particularly low in pollution, although high in Selenium. Any health warning is due to excess Selenium, a natural element which is needed in trace amounts in our bodies. I believe that the health warning for the Salton Sea was eliminated a few years ago, but I could be mistaken.

Thanks Stray Cat and Anglerism. Good luck if you go there. My friend has caught some really big ones this year, while my wife and I had really fast action that day on medium size Tilapia.

[TheAsianGuy]

Robert, don't worry about the ignorance of those who don't understand the logics, scientific data, and accumulative info along the historical timeline. It's just more fun for those who comprehend what's right, and what's wrong. By the way, I had a few families who live in the Imperial Valley that interviewed me, and they had no clue on about the facts and updated info about this lake. They've been there for nearly a decade. After the brief discussion and interview, they decided to head home, grabbed their gears, and enjoyed the abundance provision that the lake has to offer.

http://floattubeforum.do-talk.com/t3497-2013_05-27-salton-sea-report#45605