Rainbow Trout Poisoned to Preserve Native Trout
Crews from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are using a toxic antibiotic to kill off nonnative rainbow trout and make room for the native brook trout in a mountain stream along the North Carolina-Tennessee border near the Newfound Gap.
Workers have been moving brook trout--the only trout species native to the Smokies--from the two-mile stretch of creek they plan to treat. The fish will be returned after the antibiotic antimycin kills off the rainbow trout.
The process isn’t dangerous to humans and shouldn’t harm animals or other species in the park, park spokesman Bob Miller said. Still, the area will be closed to the public during the treatment.
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