Lake Sunapee - Facts About Lake Sunapee

Facts About Lake Sunapee

Depth

At its deepest, Lake Sunapee is about 105 feet (32 m) to 144 feet (44 m) deep at a point called Hedgehog. Historical maps indicate a depth of 142 feet (43 m), but no recent soundings have exceeded 108 feet (33 m). There is a scuba school in Newbury on the lake.

Water quality

The water is exceptionally pure. The water is captured frequently by the LSPA (Lake Sunapee Protective Association) and analyzed at the Colby-Sawyer College aquatic laboratory. The source of much of the water comes from cold underground springs rising from a bedrock aquifer. On a sunny day, objects can been seen to a depth of 30 feet (9.1 m). The lake has a generally rocky base (glacial erratics) and is currently milfoil-free, except for a 20-square-foot (2 m2) quarantined area.

Rainfall

One inch of rainfall on the lake produces 116 million US gallons (440,000 m3) of water. One inch in the 28,800-acre (117 km2) watershed potentially produces nearly 900 million US gallons (3,400,000 m3) of water in Lake Sunapee.

Ice Out

Records have been kept since 1869. The official "Ice Out" report was given by Artie Osborne until his death in 2010; now his son Richard Osborne carries that duty. Ice Out usually occurs in April each year. Occasionally Ice Out occurs in March or May, including:

• May 10, 1869
• May 10, 1870
• May 3, 1872
• May 6, 1873
• May 9, 1974
• May 12, 1975
• May 11, 1876
• May 12, 1879
• May 6, 1881
• May 7, 1883
• May 7, 1887
• May 14, 1888 (latest ice-out date)
• May 13, 1893
• May 3, 1899
• March 29, 1921 (previous earliest record)
• March 22, 2012 (record for earliest ice-out)

Golden Trout and Sunapee Trout

Salvelinus aureolus oquassa (Bean 1887). Common Name: blueback trout, Sunapee trout. Other names: Sunapee trout, blueback char, blueback trout, golden trout, white trout.

The Sunapee Historical Society published a report in 1968 about Sunapee's Golden Trout which had a dull silver color like the females most of the year. The Golden Trout were really White Trout, but in the fall, their nuptial season, the males turned a flaming color, attracting the name Aureolus (Golden Halo). The Golden Trout had a forked tale rather than the square tail of the Brook Trout.

On January 15, 1921, the Lake Sunapee Fish and Game Club was founded. Rearing tanks were built at Georges Mills in 1922, and 50,000 land-locked salmon, 12,000 chinook salmon, 10,000 silver trout, and 2,000 brook trout, all fingerlings, were reared and planted. By 1940, when the fishery was closed, it had planted 347,403 landlocked and chinook salmon, 196,040 trout, 345,000 mixed trout and salmon, and more than 70 million smelt eggs.

With the introduction of Lake Trout into Sunapee, which was believed to be an error, the Golden Trout were bred out of existence.

Fish of Lake Sunapee

Lake Trout (which bred out the Golden Trout); Landlocked Salmon (Atlantic Salmon) requiring deep, pure cold water; Small Mouth Bass; Chain Pickerel; Yellow Perch; Brown Bullhead Catfish; Rock Bass (Red Eye Bass)—predatory, introduced accidentally into the lake, population controlled with children's fishing contests; Rainbow Smelt; Burbot (Ling Cod).

Animals of the watershed

It is not uncommon to spot a moose swimming across the lake in the morning; Black Bear; Red Foxes; White Tail Deer; Porcupines; Woodchucks; Eastern Cotton Rabbits; Eastern Chipmunks; Eastern Gray Squirrels, Red Squirrels; Northern Flying Squirrels; Raccoons; American Beavers; Muskrats; Mink; Northern River Otters; Long Tail Weasels; American Martins; Fishers.

Loons

Nearly every year loon watchers are treated to the awesome sight of loons arriving on Lake Sunapee and fishing en masse. Recorded photos show as many as 40 loons arriving at the same time. The wild calls and yodeling of the loons can be heard morning and night around the lake. LSPA Loon Committee reported in 2011 that the lake can support as many as 40 loons, but at this time with pressure on habitats, only two pairs of loons nest on the lake. Also called the Northern Diver, they dive for fish at depths of up to 100 feet (30 m) and fly in excess of 100 miles (200 km) an hour. The loon population has been on the upswing, particularly with the use of artificial nesting islands.

Notable residents, past and present

• Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker
• Peter A. Diamond, Nobel Laureate, Professor Economics MIT (ret.), and Federal Reserve Board nominee
• John Hay, private secretary to President Lincoln and Secretary of State under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Hay's lakeshore estate (called The Fells) is located within the John Hay National Wildlife Refuge and is open for tours.
• Nobel Laureate Robert Coleman Richardson
• Steven Tyler of the band Aerosmith