During 1963 a series of experiments was conducted to determine the effect of dynamite on fish populations. One set of these experiments consisted of placing various species of fish in cylindrical wire baskets which were suspended vertically in water ranging from six to 15 feet in depth. A dynamite charge, consisting of one stick of 60% ditching dynamite, was placed at a point 10 feet from the nearest line of baskets and was detonated. Nine experiments were conducted using this arrangement of baskets in various depths of water with the dynamite charges ranging in depth from 2.5 feet below the surface to one foot from the bottom. The results of these experiments indicated the effective killing range of the dynamite charge and the most desirable depth at which to set the charge. From these tests it was found that some fish were killed up to a distance of 50 feet from the charge and that the greatest number of kills occurred when the charge was placed 2.5 feet below the surface. The second set of tests consisted of applying this technique in farm ponds. Three such ponds were dynamited, and the results are indicated. When rotenone was applied after dynamiting to remove the remainder of the fish population in Pond No.1, it was observed that 38.7% of the total number of fish and 52.4% of the total weight of fish were eradicated with the dynamite technique. After rotenoning Pond No.2 it was found that 84.2% of the total number and 73.3% of the total weight of the fish population were killed by the dynamite blast. In Pond No.3 it was noted after rotenone was applied that the dynamite 326 blast removed 55.7% of the total number of fish and 25.5% of the total weight.
