>>> February 28, 2002

Fishy conspiracy

If the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has its way, the northern longnose sucker may soon be facing a new enemy in the lakes of Fort Greely. The department’s Division of Sport Fish has filed a request to poison the suckers with a chemical called rotenone. Its reason for the request? The sucker isn’t all that tasty.

Hoping to stock three lakes with rainbow trout and Arctic grayling, the DSF is concerned that the native suckers would end up winning the battle for limited food in the lakes. After weighing the options, the department came up with rotenone as the final solution. Found commonly in a number of wild plants, rotenone makes it impossible for the fish to use oxygen. Essentially, the fish die from suffocation. According to the fisheries that use it, rotenone is perfectly safe and without environmental repercussions, though critics have attributed it to Parkinson’s Disease and various forms of cancer. :

—Scott Saxon