ABSTRACT
Mechanical removal of floating aquatic weeds from the Chagres River, main tributary of the Panama Canal, has been a successful operation. After heavy rains, huge islands of water hyacinth and other obnoxious aquatic plants float down the Chagres River and are trapped by a log boom. The Panama Canal joins the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans across the Isthmus of Panama in an area designated as the Panama Canal Zone. It is administered by the Panama Canal Zone Government by a governor appointed by the President of the US with the advice and consent of the Senate. Study of aquatic vegetation related to the Mansonia mosquito was initiated in April 1965 by the Health Bureau of the Canal Zone government. The Division of Sanitation, Health Bureau, Canal Zone government, became interested in manatees (Trichechus spp.) because the manatees had been reported from British Guiana as voracious eaters of aquatic vegetation.
