FISHIN' GONE TO THE FROGS: part 1 of 2

[GRAHAM_RANCH]

Fish stocking must have been interesting thirty years ago. Anthony Hauser, of the Dept. of Fish and Game, knew his job well.  On this particular day, his job was to stock Jackson Lake, and being very conscientious about his work, he had gone all out with it. By stocking the small lake with his truck as well! The trout were eager to enter the water, who knows if the truck was excited as well. As Mr. Hauser stood on the back of his truck to open the valve to release the fisherman's delight, the truck suddenly began rolling backwards towards the lake! Then into it! Suddenly the Fish and Game truck sunk twenty feet into the cold water. When the water finally reached Anthony's chin, he realized that he was really in deep water. Number one, he wasn't all that good a swimmer...number two, he wasn't sure, being the noble type that he was, if he should go down with the truck (or the ship) or not. A fast thinking Lee Roberts, from Huntington Beach, came to the rescue and helped Hauser reach dry land. Unfortunately, all 3,000 trout in the truck's fishing tank didn't survive the three hour tour. The difference between the lake's temperature and the water in the tank caused the fish to remain inside the tank and they met their end as the oxygen ran out.
 
Apparently, the truck did survive it's sinking...only to be sparkling clean and ready for the next stocking of Jackson Lake at a later date. To this day, Jackson Lake, as well as other Angeles National Forest area lakes, are stocked about every other week, depending on the water temperature (70 degrees or less), the time of year (May thru Oct.)...and of course depending if the transport truck had reliable brakes.

Since the conception of fish stocking over a hundred years ago, it still remains a vital function in all bodies of water in wilderness areas, including southern California forests. With good conservation methods, stocking is sharply monitored to insure the health of natural fish species as well as protect the growth and maturity of stocked non-native fish species for recreation purposes. From easy assessable bodies of water and to the isolated ones, stocking fish was a well established program.
 
Historically, forest guards assisted the fish in making their way into the backcountry through the use of animal pack trains. The fish were picked up at hatcheries by truck and delivered to crews working a pack train of horses in the rough mountain areas. Most of the time the men were forest or park guards already assigned to that given area. Fish and water were off-loaded into tin milk cans, which were tied to the sides of the horses. To prevent the fish from jostling out of the cans, gunnysacks were used to cover the openings. The crew then began the week to three month long journey through drainages, over ridges and into mountain meadows to where lakes existed. As the pack train continued on it's way, the ranger planted the trout in the steams, rivers and lakes. 

Safe as a fish fillet sitting in a frying pan of simmering garlic butter, the trout remained safe in the tin milk cans as the pack train moved. The sloshing of water in the milk cans provided enough oxygen to keep them alive. Along the way, streams, rivers and lakes were used to replace the water lost from the tin cans during the rough travel. This type of stocking left something to be desired, because some rangers dumped fish wherever it was convenient. This resulted in the large losses of young fish. It was in 1956 when most agencies changed the backcountry-stocking program to a more modern method - stocking by airplane. It was cheaper and more fish could be stocked in a shorter period of time.

The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG), started dropping the fingerlings out of airplanes to stock the lakes and by 1961 the practice was going strong. Originally started by anglers who wanted to start sport fisheries, the nation's states, via the Dept. of Fish and Game agencies, eventually wanted to control the fish populations. With that came more high technology fish stocking methods especially for more remote and high altitude lakes. That is when aerial fish stocking entered the picture.

[GRAHAM_RANCH]

While most of the stocking is done with fixed wing aircraft, helicopters were also used to a lesser extent. Aircraft commonly used for aerial fish stocking were the 2 engine Otter, or the King Air 200. The King Air was a twin-engine aircraft owned and operated by the California State Department of Fish and Game. For fish lovers out there, I'm sorry to say that parachutes weren't provided for these trips. Large cutouts were put in the floor through which the fish can be dropped into the lakes without landing the aircraft. Some areas used Cessna's 185. The planes, traveling about 85 mph, got within 125 feet of the lake surface before releasing the fish so they don't perish before they hit the water. As the pilot activates the "drop button", the fish are dropped from a hopper mounted on the plane's belly. Because of the minimum airspeed for these aircraft, fish tend to miss the lake sometimes. The result is often ten to thirty pounds of young fish scattered in trees and on the ground. This raised quite a stir among animal rights groups and environmental groups, who in the late 1960's tried to stop fish stocking altogether. Unsuccessful in their earlier attempts, they tried again forty years later with a whole new idea.

No one seems to know the survival rate of these little fish, nor accuracy of aerial trout dumps. But, the Dept. of Fish and Game are nice enough to supply the following warning: "We certainly do not wish to cause widespread panic, but we are hereby warning the public to be on the lookout for falling trout."

In 2002, when the nation was still on high alert after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a DOW Hatchery aircraft with extra trout dumped its load on Ruedi Reservoir, near Glenwood Springs, Co. The water that exited the plane, which was mixed with the extra load of trout, appeared to people on the shore to be a white powdery substance. Their eye-witness account to authorities touched off an investigation, and soon Dow Hatchery had to share a little a fish story with the feds. This year, local Colorado papers are warning campers and hikers, "The aerial stocking operation will continue through mid-September and include a handful of lakes in the Roaring Fork Valley basin. If you're hiking to American Lake, Anderson Lake or Avalanche Lake and see a plane dumping something into the water, please don't freak out and call Homeland Security."


 Over the years, fish stocking has gone through some changes that aren't too hilarious, all thanks to lawsuits started by environmental groups and a recent ruling from a superior court judge. Patrick Marlette of the Sacramento Superior Court ruled that California's fish stocking program must comply with the California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA") and that the Department of Fish and Game shall conduct a public review of the program's impacts. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed in October of 2006 by the Pacific Rivers Council and the Center for Biological Diversity over the Department's apparent failure to consider the impacts of fish stocking on sensitive aquatic species throughout the state. Sensitive aquatic species included the mountain yellow-legged frog, Cascades frog, California golden trout, McCloud River redband Trout, Santa Ana sucker, and others. Some biologists have argued that reduced fish-stocking and other steps can restore threatened amphibians, "at least in some areas".
 
Research biologist Dr. Roland Knapp has determined that "introduction of trout into lakes is one of the reasons that 90% of the mountain yellow-legged frog has disappeared. Because of Dr. Knapp, the Sierra Nevada's has shown a link between the introduction of trout into previously fishless lakes and a decline in populations of mountain yellow-legged frog. Tadpoles apparently are a food source for fish. Who knows the difference between those mountains and ours...The Sierra Nevada's fish appear to have made an impact on mountain yellow-legged frog population...but researchers admit that "possible impacts" of the introduction of non-resident trout in southern California streams inhabited by mountain yellow-legged frogs is not "clearly understood" and has yet to be determined. Seems like a trout by another other name is still a trout, while a mountain yellow-legged frog is still a mountain yellow-legged frog. If the frog is not affecting the tiny frogs here, why are they affecting them up there?

[GRAHAM_RANCH]

Deanna Spooner, conservation director of the Pacific Rivers Council, praised the recent court ruling, calling it a tremendous victory for native fish and frogs. "Now we can work to prevent future harm to these sensitive species from over-stocking of the state's streams, rivers, and lakes." Mr. S. Olson of Simi Valley, a Sierra fly-fishing enthusiast, shared his wisdom on the matter: "It's no reason to extinguish a species (frogs) because we want to fish. You never know if the frogs might hold the cure for cancer."

The mountain yellow-legged frog is known to reappear now and then from northern California to southern California to put many important programs on hold. The frog, which I've never seen up here, is one reason why much need repairs on Angeles Crest Highway 2 has been delayed. In the San Bernardino National Forest, the "Arroyo Toad" is also changing the forest outlook. According to a USGS Report, one single toad was found in 2003 near our area and about fifty in the whole darn forest over the last few years. They figured this single toad was native, since no one saw anyone bring it in. Our local Silverwood Lake "might" have a Arroyo Toad in it. It has not yet been determined. But to be on the safe side, the U.S. Government Survey unit recommended that they "heavily manage" the habitat, construct a fish barrier between the lake and stream and any future fish stocking must happen below that lake barrier. Oh, and get this: toads would then have to be "trans- located" into the area to establish a "viable population". Is that another way of saying, "If they are not there, lets move them there"?

Throwing limitations upon limitation on fishing and fish stocking has helped reduce the use of natural forest lands. Not one to be a conspiracy theorist, I can't help think about what is happening up at The River of No Return Wilderness area in Idaho. The restriction placed on the public use of the area is astounding. The Forest Service's word on the subject is this: "We need to restrict public use to enhance people's "wilderness experience." A lot of things are going to the dogs...not to mention the frogs.

For all those frog folks out there, rest assure that all is being done that can be done to protect the mountain yellow-legged frog. National Park Service personnel are actually removing trout from lakes in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks while the state Department of Fish and Game are eradicating trout from some nearby waters in the eastern Sierra. How its done is pretty interesting. Crews shock fish with electricity and use gill nets to remove them. Yosemite National Park officials are conducting similar operations to protect the amphibians there. The once trout-thriving lakes are reported to be gaining frogs in record numbers. Now, now, now... that doesn't mean that frog is finally on the dinner menu- these frogs are on the endangered species list.

Many of the state's lakes have not been designated as "wild trout waters", but a few have...these lakes are the ones being stocked.  Because of the fish stocking limitations placed on by environmental groups. trout fishing in the Eastern Sierra's had been crippled severely. But, for the fisherman, there is hope on the horizon. Hat Creek Fishing Hatchery in Mammoth Lakes, in partnership with the California Department of Fish and Game, continues to produce 12.75 million fertilized trout eggs yearly for supplying ten California Department of Fish and Game operated hatcheries throughout the state.  Not to mention two million   fingerling and sub-catch-able rainbow, brown and Kamloops trout. In addition, 700.000 catch-able rainbows are annually stocked in Easter Sierra waters, with a good helping of trophy-class heavyweight brookstock rainbows.

So, happily, there are a few places where you can actually fish to your heart content, just stay within the limit. For the lazy folks out there, trout can be found at your local grocery store. Hook free, pre-cleaned and everything. Oh, they also sell frog legs...psss, don't tell the environmental groups that.

Just a piece of history from History of Big Pines "Bits n Pieces" by Terry Graham, WW.

 

Resource:

USGS REPORT 2004

Prepared for: San Bernardino National Forest-Steve Loe, California State Parks- Alisa Ing U.S. Dept of the Interior,

U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center

Yosemite Association newsroom.org, 2001

 

[GRAHAM_RANCH]

Japanese researchers put a new spin on surrogate parenting as they engineered one fish species to produce another, in a quest to preserve endangered fish. The new method is called surrogate broodstocking. "It is one of the best things that has happened in a long time in bringing something new into conservation biology," said University of Idaho zoology professor Joseph Cloud, who is leading the U.S. government-funded sockeye project.

What can go wrong with this experiment? China has thrown several surprises into import goods to America, now Tokyo University inventors are creating a new fish that will subsequently be stocked in American waters. How will it wind up in our waters? The tests were successful, now Idaho scientists are using the same techniques to produce a type of salmon that's endangered in their state - the sockeye - this time using more plentiful trout as surrogate parents. That's right! Salmon parents are about to produce trout!

Conservation specialists are excited about the prospects, saying that new techniques are badly needed. Captive breeding of endangered fish is difficult, and attempts to freeze fish eggs for posterity so far have failed. "They showed nicely that ... they produced the fish they were shooting for," said John Waldman, a fisheries biologist at Queens College in New York. "Future work should look to expand this approach to other fishes in need of conservation, in particular, the sturgeons and paddlefish," he added. "We have a lot of species of fish around the world that are really in danger of becoming extinct." Wow, cool...so let's make new ones that are scientific improved.

The Japanese researchers' ultimate goal is to boost the rapidly dwindling population of bluefin tuna. Goro Yoshizaki, a Tokyo University marine scientist is leading the research. First, Yoshizaki's team started with "salmonids," a family that includes both salmon and trout, and one of concern to biologists because several species are endangered or extinct. Initial attempts to transplant sperm-producing cells into normal masu salmon mostly produced hybrids of the two species that didn't survive. The team "engineered" salmon to be sterile. They then injected newly hatched salmon with stem cells destined to grow into sperm that they had culled from male rainbow trout. Once they were grown, 10 of 29 male salmon who got the injections produced trout sperm, called milt.

Here's the bigger surprise, the laws of nature had been changed: Injecting the male cells into female salmon sometimes worked, too, prompting five female salmon to ovulate trout eggs! The stem cells were still primitive enough to switch gears from sperm-producers to egg-producers when they wound up inside female organs. The salmon-grown trout sperm was used to fertilize both wild trout eggs and the salmon-grown trout eggs. DNA testing confirmed that all of the dozens of resulting baby fish were pure trout. Moreover, those new trout grew up able to reproduce!

After the Tokyo University tests showed these results, University of Idaho scientists invited scientist Goro Yoshizaki to Idaho to work his magic there. Their intent is to use the same method to produce the endangered sockeye salmon. Last January, Yoshizaki helped University of Idaho scientists collect and freeze immature sperm tissue from young sockeye salmon being raised at a state-run hatchery. In October, he returns to help Idaho professor Joseph Cloud thaw the tissue and implant it into sterile rainbow trout.

You ask, "Are scientists play god again?"...Well, check out this piece of irony. In June of 2006, a presidential appointed 11 independent member panel nicknamed the 'God Squad' had recommended that Idaho's run of endangered sockeye salmon to central Idaho's Redfish Lake be allowed to go extinct. Scientists say that about 35,000 sockeye used to return to Redfish Lake, but only six returned in 2005.

resource:

Associated Press, Sept. 13, 2007 issue-written by Lauran Neergaard

The Seattle News, June 14, 2006, AP