Recent data spell trouble for Koocanusa fish
Erin Sexton, a research scientist at the University of Montana, Flathead Lake Biological Station, delivers a presentation on selenium in Lake Koocanusa on March 12. (Derrick Perkins/The Western News)
Residents were scattered around the Maki Theater in Libby's Central School for a presentation on selenium in Lake Koocanusa earlier this month. (Derrick Perkins/The Western News)
If recent data from peamouth chub and other fish hold valid insight — and at least, biologists in Montana believe they do — selenium levels at Lake Koocanusa reach as high as 250 percent of what’s allowed in Montana waters.
Moreover, nearly half of the lake chub sampled for the data in 2020 from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks tested too hot for the trace mineral, often far exceeding the new statewide threshold for selenium in dried fish egg and ovary tissue...
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