Lagoons in the Park

And have for many years.

Too bad the fish you're talking about don't live in Lake Erie, to say nothing of the fact that no one here can identify the species with any degree of certainty.

Newsflash... just because it's on the Internet doesn't make it true. I'll go with the words of the people with fancy PhD's that study the local fish.

It is absolutely disgusting to watch geese waddle over thousands of carp in frontiertown to get their fill of fish food!

I still think it's not possible, but what do I know?

Doing some more research on carp (slow day), it does appear that most species are adapted to "hibernate" in winter. Nothing I read said anything about burrowing into the mud though. Basically as the water cools, their bodies slowly shut down and they enter a near state of torpor. Their metabolism goes way down, they generate almost no waste and pretty much don't move for the entire of winter. When the water thaws and begins to warm up, they come out of it and become the active loogie eating machines that we seen in the lagoons during the summer.

Okay, so what about the Bluegill and Sunfish I've seen in the lagoons?

Any creature in colder climates has a way to cope with the cold winters. Not sure how the bluegill and sunfish do it. I just looked up stuff on the carp.

Yeah, we get winter coats.

If our atmosphere suddenly went away, we wouldn't just hibernate, however. :p

The key point to hibernation however is the gradual change from warm to cold. A sudden change (like if you took liquid N2 and poured it in a carp pond and assuming it only dropped the temp of the water to freezing) would kill the fish. Even though they can survive cold temperatures, they need the time to adjust to it becoming cold.

That happens a lot in Lake Erie during the winter when the fish stay close to warm water deposits, say from a water plant, or something similar. They then can go into hypothermic shock and die if a strong current carrying frigid water overtakes the warmer water. That is why there is a strong odor around Janurary/February along I-90/rte 2 near cleveland.

But anyways, why is the water green though? I don't think thats natural is it?

OK, I am sure some of you will disagree, but I would bet a long dollar that the fish in those lagoons are actually pretty yummy. Think about it. They're basically grain-fed for months on end, and eat some other basic proteins and carbohydrates. They live in a fairly controlled zone, with what I would imagine are fairly minimal pollutants, especially in the heavy-metals department, where bottom feeders tend to be a problem. They're fat, dumb, and happy. I would grill a fillet of "cannibal fish" in a heartbeat.

I have eaten most species of fish from Lake Erie, and cooked correctly, most of them are good, including Sheephead, Channel Cat, and the much maligned carp.

Hmmmm, maybe those aren't really perch fillets over at the Happy Friar after all!

I believe that Cedar Point does use a dye of some kind in the lagoons. When I worked there, I had to walk past the water every day. One morning, it had changed from brown to an almost neon green. You could see where it had yet to be mixed in throughly, kind of like when you stir chocolate syrup into milk.

You have to wonder about it, though. It can't be safe for the wildlife.

The so-called dye is probably from copper sulfate commonly used to control algae. The shallow man-made nutrient rich lagoons would be choking in algae and aquatic vegetation without some form of control. The carp IS a nasty non-native that is responsible for the regular disruption and destruction of near shore aquatic habitats, especially wetlands. I don't know what they do in the winter, but are pretty tolerant to waters heavily impacted by human disturbance and are tolerant of low oxygen conditions. Some aquatic organisms can burrow in mud and slow their metabolism to a crawl not needing much oxygen and can absorb enough through their skin to survive the winter months (even on land such as the american toad). The other fish like blue gills probably hang out in deeper areas during the winter and many fish species remain somewhat active, hence ice fishing. Check out Ohio DNR's web page for more information, it is a reputable web site with useful information about the wildlife resources of Lake Erie and Sandusky Bay. I only know enough about this stuff to be dangerous, so chek it out and enjoy your Cedar Point wildlife!!

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/wildlife/

heheh... minimal pollutants.....

except when dragster 'dumps its load' so to speak.

I have always been under the impression that the greenish color was a "natural" way to control some growths and help prevent mosquitoes from breeding in the lagoons. I could see copper sulfate. The green makes sense.

It would be quite a feat to drain the lagoons entirely, every year. I beleive the water depth at places is between 12-20 feet. Personally I would go for the shallower end. I learned the actual depth at one point in time but have since forgotten it. I just remember being shocked to hear a 2 digit number. Maybe some of you Paddlewheel or Western Cruise Almuni can help there.

I don't know what if any affect there is on the lagoons, but anyone who has ever done a White Water Landing cleanup in April knows that the pond there had/has a natural spring of sorts in it. Hence the mineral deposits that accrued on the ride. I'm sure besides the 2 lake openings it looks as though the spring may have been used for some filling as well. I'm not sure on the history of the bubble water at that location. I'm interested in learning more about the bubbly ;) water of the spring if anyone knows more information on it.

The fact is they are deep and take time to fill in. They are fillable, after all they are all man-made or a mjority of the channeling. One of the uses was to transport coal to the resort power house in the early 1900s. There is also proof of the ability to fill the lagoons in. DRAGSTER.

References from Cedar Point: The Queen of American Wattering Places.

I would say from the pictures in the book, about 50% maybe less of the original lagoons are left.

This post is certainly a jumbled mess. Sorry.