US Fish and Wildlife OUTRAGE!

[CAelknuts]

I was asked to put this information on the internet and try to help get it spread far and wide. I was asked to do this by an employee of one of the wildlife agencies, as they're very angry at what they learned a little over a week ago about some of the fish hatcheries here in California.

As background, California has closed nearly all salmon fishing, ocean and freshwater, for several years, only allowing very limited fishing last year. They blame the precipitous drop in salmon populations on 'poor ocean conditions'. Here's what is really happening. The Feather River hatchery collected 30,000,000 king salmon eggs this last spawning season. USFWS only gave them authorization to raise and release 8,000,000 smolts back into the river, so they were directed to destroy 22,000,000 eggs! With plummeting salmon stocks, when are people going to wake up to what is really going on with this politically correct game management. In the misguided belief that wild spawned salmon are somehow superior to hatchery spawned fish, our GOVERNMENT is the reason salmon stocks have plummeted. People need to look into this, and whoever is responsible for destroying 22 million potential salmon needs to be held accountable. They also directed the destruction of several million steelhead eggs from Feather River, only allowing about 20% of what was collected to be raisecd and released.

I was told this is happening in hatcheries up and down the state, but that nobody is talking about it or giving it any publicity. Some managers in California Fish and Game are very angry about this, and everyone else should be too!

 

[FishlakeElkHunter]

You know....everyone makes fun of us Utah people....but you guys in California sure got some WACKOS running things!!

That is some crazy stuff Dan...thanks for the info!!! Now I hope getting the word out does some good and puts a stop to this!

 

[wvbowhunterinalaska]

Sounds like a lobbyist for F&G has a outside party (probably a huge commercial fishing conglomorate) trying to set the price of salmon through control of the number of salmon produced. Smells like a rat to me.
WVBOWAK

 

[sageadvice]

Fish, Caelk did capitalize USFWS and GOVERNMENT, so sounds like it's not so much the Cali F&G people screwing this one up as the Federal guys. Point taken and accepted though!!

CAelk, Sad deal! So they must be thinking, doubtful, that if fewer hatchery fish then more habitat for wild fish? Must be a money thing.!!

Joey

 

[HunterHarry]

When the California salmon runs crashed so did a huge part of my life.
It's a crying shame and truly gives me a sick feeling.
I was there to see the glory days, but all I have now are memories.

Here is a hatchery King salmon.
Trust me, it fought like stud and ate like a King.
Damn few people would bittch that it weren't a native fish.

 

[beavis14]

key word here california enough said......

 

[CAelknuts]

There is a wide spread belief among some in the biological community that 'wild' salmon are genetically superior to hatchery spawned fish, and therefore we're better off without hatchery fish as much as possible. That is the kind of thinking behind this BS.

About 10 years ago, I was working on the Lower Butte Creek Project, which brought public and private interests together like has never been seen before in California (or damned near anywhere else for that matter) to work on a watershed improvement project that benefitted salmon and steelhead greatly. Few know it, but outside of the Sacramento River, Butte Creek is about the largest salmon spawning tributary in California. Anyway, over a period of about 10 years, we raised over $14,000,000 and re-built every water control structure in the watershed from the Colusa-Gridley highway to the Feather River. Every structure had a state of the art fish ladder installed, and spawning populations skyrocketed. However, one day in particular stands out in my memory. I was meeting with some biologists on a bridge that goes along Butte Creek, and this 'new age' biologist was talking about the superiority of'wild' fish. I argued that you couldn't tell the difference from a genetic standpoint, whether the fish was spawned in a hatchery or a redd in the river. We got into quite a heated arguement, and had to be seperated when I tried to push the biologist off the bridge and into Butte Creek. Some of those jack*rses need to go swim with the salmon!

 

[eelgrass]

Dan, you're right, that is an outrage. We would all like to maintain a wild population of salmon and steelhead, and I think we should strive for that where ever possible. But there should be a hatchery or other types of enhancement programs on every system. It only makes sense, both economical and biological.

We do it in our forests, on our agricultural lands, ranches, and with big and small game. Why would fish be any different?

There definitly is a purist, eletist fishing crowd that generally makes me want to puke.

I wonder if those Wood Duck nest boxes that you maintain on your property produce genetically inferior Wood Ducks? You better check into that!

Eel

 

[Cornhusker]

This was an interesting thread for me to read since I have never caught a salmon. So I started to research a lot just for my own interest. I know nothing on this but from what I have gathered the last couple of evenings it appears the last 2 posts are spot on target from all the info available to read. Although I read a lot that referred to pollution and overfishing as having an impact as well.

 

[NickW]

I wonder how many hatchery spawned fish return to the river in future years and end up spawning in the river? Now wouldn't that mess up the "wild" strain, as the new smolts would not have clipped fins?
Just a thought!

 

[eelgrass]

>I wonder how many hatchery spawned
>fish return to the river
>in future years and end
>up spawning in the river?
> Now wouldn't that mess
>up the "wild" strain, as
>the new smolts would not
>have clipped fins?
>Just a thought!


Nick, that is theoretically a concern. Yes, some hatchery fish end up spawning outside the hatchery. But it's no different than capturing a Bighorn sheep in Idaho and moving it to Colorado, for example. Will the Idaho sheep contaminate the genetics of Colorado? If you're a purist, I guess maybe. But it may add genetic diversity also.

Cornhusker, you've never caught a salmon? That's just not right. But then I've never shot a pheasant before either. We both need to get out more.

Eel

 

[NickW]

Eel, I agree!
Now didn't the "hatchery" fish originate from the "wild" salmon? Don't both strains die after spawning? Isn't is possible that the wild and hatchery fish interbreed? How do the biologists answer these questions?
I am playing the devil's advocate on this, but.... would this mean that the California Condors that are raised in captivity and released into the wild, are and will breed an inferior species?
Don't ya just love it!