Doesn't using the chad as bait for fishing simply put the pollutants in other waters? It seems a little shortsighted but maybe I'm not understanding the full story.
Lake Apopka is 30,000 acres, about 47 sq. miles, a decent sized lake. The Gulf of Mexico is 615,000 sq miles with the Gulf Stream running through it. Compared with what the Mississippi dumps into it every day, this is a thimbleful.
Yes, and there are other hidden problems. People should not do this normally.
Can't you reuse these nitrogen- and phosphorus- rich fish as fertilizer?
I would assume so? I remember my grandfather doing something like that with fish in South Dakota caught from lakes that had similar problems with fertilizer run-off.
Phosphorus is crucial to human life. It underpins modern agriculture worldwide, and like fresh water, is a finite resource globally. There is disagreement over the exact time frame for reaching "peak phosphorus" as well, estimates range from 15 to 100+ years. So while these fish represent one method of phosphorus recovery, it doesn't address the wastefulness of allowing important resources like nitrogen and phosphorus to runoff into Lake Apopka in the first place.