NOAA Fish LIDAR at Yellowstone Park

Contact: Jim Churnside

In a collaboration between the National Park Service and Montana State University, the NOAA Fish LIDAR recently flew over Yellowstone Lake looking for lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush). Lake trout is an invasive species that is supplanting the native cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki Bouvieri) in the lake as lake trout prey heavily on cutthroat trout. This is a potential disaster, because the lake trout prefer deeper water, and are not as available to grizzly bears, bald eagles, white pelicans, osprey, and many other species that depend on cutthroat trout as a food source. The Park Service would like to remove the lake trout, but they have to find them first. This is where the NOAA Fish LIDAR comes in. Researchers at Montana State University borrowed the LIDAR to investigate its potential for locating fish in the lake during the recent fall spawning period in September.

If this technology proves to be capable of detecting and identifying lake trout with the sufficient reliability, Montana State University researchers plan to develop a similar instrument that can be used on small aircraft to help National Park Service fisheries biologists locate and control the lake trout population.

More Information

• (FLOE) Fish Lidar, Oceanic, Experimental