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Somewhere in Lake Tahoe, 14 unwelcome fish are swimming around watched by Big Brother.

Surgically implanted transmitters are beaming the fish’s location to curious scientists. Their movements are being tracked as part of a broader effort to ensure they do not become firmly entrenched as members of Tahoe’s aquatic community.

These are large mouth bass and bluegill, fish normally found in much warmer waters and which could pose a significant threat to Tahoe’s sensitive ecology.

“If you don’t tackle them early, they just proliferate,” said Sudeep Chandra, an expert in fresh water sciences for University of Nevada, Reno.

Joined by scientists from University of California, Davis in a program supported by the U.S. Forest Service and the California Department of Fish and Game, Chandra and colleagues are tracing movements of the fish through this summer and into next winter.

Likely introduced by anglers in the Tahoe Keys area of South Lake Tahoe roughly 15 years ago, bass and bluegill appear to be spreading around the lake slowly but steadily. ... READ MORE