Category Archives: Lake Champlain

19th Century anchor found

BURLINGTON — Officials say a 19th century anchor from a Lake Champlain freighter has been found off a Vermont beach and it will likely be transported to a deeper, shipwreck preserve.
Adam Kane of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum says the rusty anchor, which is covered with marine growth, probably came from one of the canal boats that carried cargo on the lake in the 19th century.
The anchor was found off Burlington’s North Beach.
The Burlington Free Press is reporting the anchor was snagged by accident Sunday by boaters hauling in their lines about 100-feet offshore.
Kane says the museum will deposit the anchor in about 40 feet of water at the wreck site of the canal boat General Butler, at the south end of the Burlington breakwater.

Coast Guard rescues 2 kayakers from Lake Champlain

BURLINGTON — The U.S. Coast Guard has rescued two kayakers from Lake Champlain in Burlington.
Crews received a report Thursday afternoon that a kayak had capsized and one person was in the water near North Beach.
Officials say a second kayaker was on the scene, but unable to pull the person out of the water.
The Coast Guard says rescue crews responded and brought both kayakers safely back to shore.

Feds, states to control cormorants

MONTPELIER — Officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the states of Vermont and New York are working to reduce the population of a non-native sea bird species that has been overwhelming some Lake Champlain islands for decades.
Biologists from the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department will be working this summer to remove excessive double crested cormorants from islands in the lake as a way to protect nesting habitat for other bird species such as herons, egrets and terns.
In New York, biologists from the state and other groups will be working on the lake’s Four Brothers Islands to control cormorants by coating un-hatched eggs with oil, which will prevent them from hatching.
Some anglers believe the cormorants are responsible for declines in some species of fish in Lake Champlain.

Bass fishing starts off strong

COLCHESTER — Bass fishing has gotten off to a strong start on Lake Champlain.
Spring flooding last year cost anglers in Vermont the first several weeks of the catch-and-release season.
WCAX-TV reports this year, the lake level is well below normal and the ice was gone early. Anglers have had success since the season opened on April 14.
Catch and release season ends on June 8. The largemouth and smallmouth bass season runs until Nov. 30.

Panel works on lake cleanup

MONTPELIER — A U.S.-Canadian panel created to seek ways to clean up Lake Champlain wants to get public input before it issues its final report.
In 2008, the International Joint Commission asked scientists from the governments of the two countries as well as Vermont and the province of Quebec to produce the Missisquoi Bay Critical Source Area Study.
Missisquoi Bay is the northernmost section of Lake Champlain, most of which is in Quebec. The bay has one of the highest concentrations of the pollutant phosphorous in the lake.
The phosphorous helps produce sometimes-toxic algae blooms in the bay.
The first hearing is set for May 1 in St. Armand, Quebec. On May 2 a hearing will be held in Swanton.