Standard Operating Practices for the Use of Fintrol (Antimycin A) for Restoration of Native Fish Populations

Moore, Steve; Kulp, Matt; Rosenlund, Bruce; Brooks, Jim; Propst, David

"The national park system was created to conserve unimpaired many of the world’s most magnificent landscapes, places that enshrine our nation’s enduring principles, and places that remind us of the tremendous sacrifices Americans have made on behalf of those principles" (NPS 2006). To accomplish this, an important component of the current management strategies calls for the National Park Service (NPS) to maintain as parts of the natural ecosystems of parks all plants and animals native to park ecosystems and to restore, where appropriate, native plant and animal species (NPS 2006), While management actions today make every attempt to meet this mandate, during the formative years of the NPS, managers promoted parks by managing scenery and enhancing tourism activities such as recreational fishing, sometimes to the detriment of natural systems. Oftentimes, these recreational activities were readily endorsed by the public and they appealed for more opportunities, including the stocking of non-native fishes. In its early years, the new agency did not have sufficiently knowledgeable staff to manage the fishery; therefore, this function was often turned over to state agencies. The states followed accepted recreational fishery management plans of the day and stocked non-native fish in National Park units across the nation. Only in more recent years have biologists and resource managers in state and federal agencies begun to realize the damage that had occurred due to the loss of genetic integrity and the displacement or elimination of native species by non-native species. National Park Service managers, as well as fishery managers across the nation, are faced with the challenge of protecting and preserving native fish and, if possible, restoring them to segments of their historic range. Currently, only two viable techniques, i.e. electrofishing and the use of fish-killing chemicals (piscicides), are available to successfully remove non-native fishes in order to restore native fish to segments of their historic range. Projects in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM) used electrofishing techniques to successfully remove non-native rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) from segments of small streams with natural barriers to upstream migration. Data from these projects demonstrate that they are labor intensive and are subject to failure if the right conditions are not met. In many aquatic systems, the use of piscicides is the only practical alternative to ensure complete eradication of entire non-native fish populations. The purpose of this manual is to provide fisheries managers with protocols for conducting a safe, effective, and lawful restoration project with the restricted use piscicide antimycin A, sold commercially in a formulation known as Fintrol®. Using the protocols specified in this document, fishery managers in close cooperation with certified pesticide applicators will be able to apply Fintrol® consistently to remove non-native fish species from streams, ponds, or small lakes and impoundments (<50 ha) with subsequent re-establishment of natural aquatic communities. This standardized and consistent use of Fintrol® will also help reduce potential for human and non-target wildlife exposure and therefore minimize unintended adverse ecological effects.