Plant eating fish keeping Cape Coral canals clean
Story Created: Feb 29, 2012 at 7:26 PM America/New_York

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CAPE CORAL, Fla -- It's your money, and the city of Cape Coral is spending it to protect plant eating fish. Public works officials are installing grates in select canals across the city to keep these fish from swimming away. But as Rachael Rafanelli tells us, officials say this will actually save money.

"I got involved in the design and the fabrication of them." City welder Jeff Rockhey has seen these grates change over time from horizontal bars to vertical bars to swing gates. He designs and puts them together. "We made small little changes from there and it evolved into what we have now," he said.

The grates have one purpose: to keep Triploid Grass Carp inside select basins. The fish cut down the growth of aquatic plants inside the waterways. So how does that save you money?
    

County and city officials say by cutting back the cost of herbicides in Cape Canals and letting nature manage nature. "We are very confident that our designs now are the best for keeping the carp back," said Cape Coral public works official Chris Camp.

"Roughly it's somewhere around maybe about 4 dollars per fish they're about 10 to 12 inches long when we stock them." Kevin Watts, with Lee County Hyacinth Control says the county stocks the canals with the specialized sterile carp. "It's usually about 10 fish per vegetative acre," he said.

He estimates 1200 acres of Cape canals contain the vegetarian swimmers. "And if we're able to establish them and have them survive over an extended period of time they can reduce our cost in the long run," he said.

The safety of the workers cleaning the grates is also something the city keeps in mind during the design. That's why they've transitioned to swing gates so workers don't have to get in the water when they clean every two weeks.


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