A Mystery of Loon Lake

Last week samples of lake water were submitted for testing for the presence of some invasive species. While collecting the samples, we noticed that the water sample collected at one location was considerably more "gelatinous" in nature than those collected at the other locations. All samples are collected by dragging an assembly behind a boat. The assembly has a funnel shaped fine mesh net that is connected to a bottle that has very fine outlet screens. It took a lot longer for the water flow through the assembly to capture enough water for that sample. The location was shallower than at the other locations; the surface water at the location was at the same temperature as at the other locations; the weight of water collected seemed the same as at the other locations; the water appeared to be as clear as at the other locations; and the algae content of the sample appeared to be about the same as at the other locations.

So the mystery is what made the water "thicker" at the one location?

We suspect that the sample in the one location had a greater concentration of micro-organisms or in fact had different micro-organisms than at the other location. And this may be true because of the shallower water with overall warmer temperatures throughout that depth.

So we've asked the people doing the analysis at the Ontario Federation of Angler's and Hunters laboratory to pay particular attention to this sample and give us their thoughts and comments.