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Impact of Hatchery Fish on Wild Steelhead


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#1 NADO

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Posted 23 April 2014 - 11:25 AM

This is an interesting watch, very informative. Some interesting knowledge to take away that can be applied to our fishery here on the benefits of increasing or reducing the stocking of steelhead in rivers that have an established population.

 

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#2 FrequentFlyer

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Posted 23 April 2014 - 12:04 PM

there have been studies done on some of the rivers and creeks i fish, and steelhead runs are around 97-99% wild, and salmon are about the same


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#3 NADO

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Posted 23 April 2014 - 01:27 PM

Found some more from North Fork Studio's.

 

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#4 Captain Barty

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Posted 23 April 2014 - 03:09 PM

Great lakes steelhead are all descendants from stocked fish.... Pretty interesting as it applies to the west coast though...


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#5 Braedon

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Posted 23 April 2014 - 09:33 PM

I had a chance to visit the Capalino hatchery in Vancouver. It's a cool thing to see all the fish being raised at different stages of their life. 1 pounders jumping up the hatchery fish ladders. Plus there is a healthy population of fish that live below the hatchery in the river and they are fishable, really regret not bringing my rod along.


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#6 NADO

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Posted 24 April 2014 - 08:10 AM

The same concepts can apply to rivers here with established populations. Increased stocking only leads to reduced quality in the gene pool. So while the number of fish in the trib goes up the number of fish resulting from natural reproduction goes down. Leaving us with a fishery full of clones like they have on the south shore.
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#7 Captain Barty

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Posted 24 April 2014 - 10:11 AM

Or like they have on the 'Geen. Don't hear anyone complaining about the "clones" there....


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#8 NADO

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Posted 24 April 2014 - 02:15 PM

I was actually going to bring that up in this convo as I was thinking about that the other day.

Specifically about the transportation of fish to the upper stretches in their tank. Ideally by now naturally reproduced steelhead would hopefully be making it back up to that trib to respawn and I was wondering if their current transportation efforts may actually be having a negative impact on the progress made by efforts from years past. Lots to consider here though, most notably wether or not they are actually making it back there.

There is a ton of natural fish in the Geen but also a ton of stockers. It may be time to start reducing stocking efforts after all and put those efforts into other tribs that aren't doing well or stream rehabilitation.
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