The state of Colorado will soon add water temperature standards to pre-existing standards of toxic pollutants.  Water temperature is very important for fish survival, and triggers the timing of fish spawning and other activities.  The state hopes that restrictions to activities that affect water temperature, including diverting water and reducing stream shading, will ultimately protect native trout species.

See the story here

An intensive approach to Atlantic salmon preservation has been ongoing in the UK and other parts of Europe, evident in a recent FishUpdate.com article.

Officials are stocking fingerling salmon, adding and renovating fish passage at dams, and working with farmers to reduce runoff, which can cause silt to clog up salmon redds and kill incubating eggs.

Such an approach seems to be working in Europe, with record high numbers of salmon returning to nearby Scottish waters. 

Atlantic salmon restoration has been much less successful in the United States, where salmon numbers may have declined beyond recovery.  Efforts in the U.S. continue, but their effectiveness remains to be seen.  Maybe Americans need to mix it up a little, and try some different approaches…..or focus recovery efforts elsewhere. 

Salmon recovery and preservation in Europe is very driven by the sport fishery, providing incentive for agencies and citizens alike to have a vested interest in making things happen for salmon.

Throughout most of the eastern United States, however, hopes of recovering Atlantic salmon populations to the point where they provide a significant fishery have been dim at best, which has further distanced anglers from the center of salmon recovery.

However, I should note that the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission recently opened salmon fishing to Maine’s Penobscot River.  While only a handful of salmon have actually been caught, the new season appears to be a move in the right direction and may revitalize salmon clubs along the river, fueling interest in salmon recovery once again.

California anglers will now be able to fish year-round in three popular fishing waters, a great new opportunity……one which met with opposition just like every other new regulation proposal.

I enjoyed reading Jim Matthews’ San Bernardino Sun column about opposition to the new changes.  California Department of Fish and Game biologists were confident that the changes would have little to no negative effect on the fishery, but opposition to change, with little or no logical reason, is inevitable.

The new extended season on these three waters will provide more angling opportunity, take away pressure from other waters, and provide economic benefit to a few local communities.  But any time change comes along, you’ll have opposition.   

When most of us see a picture of a fisherman with a huge catch, ‘photoshop’ is one of the first things that comes to mind.  “That doesnt look real.  Must have been photoshopped!”

And oftentimes they are.  But wouldn’t it be cool if there was really a way to tell?  For sure?

Enter Dr. Hany Farid, head of the Image Science Laboratory at Dartmouth College.  Dr. Farid uses the new field of digital forensics to authenticate the validity of images.  In other words, he and his colleagues try to determine whether an image has been modified or manipulated to trick people into believing something that isn’t accurate.

Most of the work Dr. Farid does is in relation to images used in scientific papers and other academic works.  However, when asked about the most interesting use of his image-validating software, Farid explained that he sold a copy of the software to a Canadian company that runs a fishing contest, to help them determine whether a fish in an image sent to them has been enlarged.  How cool is that!

 See an interview with Farid here

Wild populations of native brook trout have been on the decline in many parts of the eastern United States for decades.  While some strongholds for the species exist, particularly in northern Maine, and restoration efforts such as those in the Smoky Mountains have been successful, wild brook trout remain imperiled or even nonexistent in many parts of their native range.

Because of the rarity of native brook trout waters in much of the East, state conservation programs have been working hard at restoring the species and protecting habitat in special wild trout waters.

One such water has been known to Pennsylvania angler Mark Rinehamer for decades, but his recent concerns for one of the area’s few remaining wild brook trout creeks caused him to contact Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission biologists to take a look at the creek.

And it turns out that the Commission biologists took an interest in this creek, and plan to make it part of their Cooperative Habitat Improvement Program. 

Check out the story here. 

And if you know of a particular area that may be important for fish conservation, or looks like it might be impaired, be sure to contact your local fisheries biologist.  These guys often have so much water to keep track of, and this results in some waters being overlooked at times.  Good communication between anglers and fisheries professionals is often key to preserving our valuable fish resources.

Recent research from Oregon State University has raised a considerable amount of concern about the role of hatchery fish and their use in salmon recovery efforts.

The study has shown that domesticating salmon in the hatchery environment can significantly reduce their reproductive potential, so that individuals do not contribute to future generations nearly as much as wild fish do. 

While the study calls to question the role of hatchery fish in recovery, I think that hatchery salmon still play a significant role in providing a sport fishery, and buffering the impacts of angling on wild salmon.

Concerns about the genetic (and other) consequences of mixing hatchery and wild salmon may become even more considerable as a result of this work.  But I think the real question is whether or not we can even recover wild salmon without the help of hatcheries, especially considering the incredibly high percentage of hatchery fish making up many of our salmon runs on both coasts.

Full story from Science Daily

The Deseret Morning News reports that Utah officials have found dangerously high levels of PCB’s in two species of Utah Lake fish, carp and channel catfish.  Utah Lake is the largest freshwater lake in the state of Utah, and contains a number of other fish species, including black bullhead, white bass, and walleye, which tested safe. 

PCB’s were once used for industrial purposes and were banned in the U.S. in the late 1970’s, but often show up in the environment even today.  They are toxic and believed to cause cancer.  Officials have recommended fish consumption limits for the two contaminated species. 

It’s been almost 30 years since a federal court ruled that Michigan Indian tribes had virtually unlimited fishing rights in state waters, under an 1836 treaty.  As a result, the state is currently still under negotiation with five Michigan tribes to decide their right to Michigan’s fish and wildlife resources.  Unlike Wisconsin and Minnesota, Michigan is trying to negotiate in order to avoid the problems encountered by the other two states. 

A recent article from the Detroit Free Press explains the rights given to Native Americans under the new agreement.    

Personally, a number of things bother me about the agreement, and tribal rights in general, but the thing that really gets me is this:

Q: Indians can kill up to five deer a year, including two bucks, with tribal licenses. Can they buy state licenses and kill more deer?

A: Yes. Because Indians are in the unique position of being both members of their tribe and citizens of the state, they can buy licenses from both. That goes for small game and fishing licenses as well.

I don’t understand how someone has the right to claim both tribal membership and state citizenship at the same time for the purposes of taking fish and wildlife.  As a citizen of the state of Utah, I can only claim residency in Utah.  To me, this is like saying that I can claim residency in other states for hunting/fishing purposes outside of my home state.  Come on, either you’re an American or you’re not.  I guess I just don’t understand tribal rights.  If an allowance to take addition fish and wildlife applied to those who live off the land (like subsistence users in Alaska - Native OR White), I would understand that.  But most of these folks live just like you or I.  I understand that the treaty is law, but how relevant is it?  We’re all Americans and live in ‘One Nation Under God’.  Why don’t we all live under the same law and rules, without exception?

Maine’s brook trout expert, fisheries biologist Forrest Bonney, recently finished his latest book titled “Squaretails: Biology and Management of Maine’s Brook Trout”.  The book goes through the history of brook trout in Maine, brook trout fishing, rearing and stocking, and a number of other topics.  “Squaretails” covers some of the same information as Bonney’s other brook trout book, “Maine Brook Trout: Biology, Conservation, and Management,” except that the newer book presents the information in a readable, non-technical format.

Forrest Bonney has been a fisheries biologist for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife since 1973, and has been the state’s brook trout species author since 1989.  Considering his experience, and the fact that Maine is considered the last stronghold for native brook trout in the United States, Bonney is as qualified as any to be authoring a book on brookies.

I purchased the book today, and hope to give a review when I get the chance to read it.

Buy ”Squaretails: Biology and Management of Maine’s Brook Trout”

Article on the book’s release

Statistics from a recent report show that Atlantic salmon catches in Scotland in 2006 were among the highest on record, totaling nearly 86,000 salmon!  Fishery managers believe that the increased catch is indicative of a larger salmon run, resulting from the buyout of commercial fishing interests among other conservation measures.  In addition, more anglers than ever are releasing caught salmon.  Experts still caution that care should be taken to ensure that this encouraging trend continues, and they cite uncertainties in marine survival and escapement of hatchery stocks as management challenges.

Despite the great news for salmon, catches of sea trout (sea-run brown trout) have declined considerably, and are among the lowest on record.

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