Posted on 01/03/2009 3:55:55 PM PST by Reeses
The nets that volunteers held in a remote river valley near Bodega Bay were full of the squiggling bluish fish that biologists hope will be the seed population of a new race of coho salmon.
The scaly, flapping critters were carried in nets from a truck 25 yards to the banks of Salmon Creek, a western Sonoma County tributary that winds through a stunning rural valley.
The 305 hatchery-raised coho were the first of their kind seen in any significant numbers in the degraded watershed since the mid-1970s, but their release last month was more than just a reintroduction.
It was part of a pioneering experiment in genetic diversity, the re-creation of a missing link that could serve as a bridge toward the renewal of this gravely endangered species.
"We are trying to develop fish with good strong genetic makeup that will lead to a durable natural population," said Gail Seymour, an associate biologist and Salmon Creek watershed planner for the California Department of Fish and Game.
"We don't know for sure that we are going to have full recovery by planting this minimal number of fish. It hasn't been that long since we've known that diverse genetics are so critical."
The fish that were released are a mix of 3-year-old coho from the Russian River and Olema Creek in Marin County. The combination may not seem like a big deal to most people, but the two populations are genetically unique, much like different races of people on different continents.
If they mate, as expected, the coho would repopulate the creek with an essentially new mixed race of salmon, a species of coho free from the debilitating problems that scientists are increasingly associating with hatchery inbreeding.
Creating a new race
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Are good on the grill?
Are these fish applying for bailout money? Do you think they will all die and stink up the place if they don’t get their bailout money?
A new race? A better race? A...no! No! I can't bear to ask!!!
All I can say is:
YUM!
Far better than kings, IMHO.
The f&g folks are creating yet another endangered species.
Are you being sarcastic?
Seems like nature to me.
Free at last! Personification of fish isn't journalism. If the MSM keeps laying eggs like this they will soon die.
Man-made, created, or directed is not nature by definition.
If the native fish population has either been fished out, or damaged by pollution, doesn’t it make sense to restock the river with genetically diversified salmon, once the waters are clean enough to support the fish?
Open mouth insert uninformed foot.
If Kali would put even a halfway significant portion of the money paid in from fishing licenses into Salmon rehab it would create the worlds greatest fish resource ... not to mention a vast supply of good eating and fun angeling.
This and much much more has to be done. The dams and logging and farming have nearly destroyed Kali salmon. We MUST bring them back. Whatever it takes.
Today it is a Super Race of Fish... next will be a be a Super Race of Blond Blue Eyed humans...
For fishing sure, but then it's no longer natural. Should the farmers have water and farming restrictions imposed on them to support a government worker's man-made aquarium project?
Natural smatchural! You speak nonsense.
Everything about modern life is ‘unnatural’. Industry destoryed the salmon fisheries in Kali and it will take ‘unnatural’ industry to restore some semblance of a salmon run.
What in HECK does natural have to do with it? Are you a vegan or PETA member or something? You sound like one.
“They will die.”
The point is they will return back up the rivers they came from when they are ripe, release and fertilize their eggs, and hopefully have a stronger more genetically diverse population of very tasty offspring. The natural life cycle of salmon is that they die after reproducing. They don’t hang around to become mother-in-laws and grumpy old men.
I’m ok with stocking the rivers to support game fishing. I’m not ok with expensive environmental restrictions to create a man-made simulation of pretend nature.
“They will die.”
The point is they will return back up the rivers they came from when they are ripe, release and fertilize their eggs, and hopefully have a stronger more genetically diverse population of very tasty offspring. The natural life cycle of salmon is that they die after reproducing. They don’t hang around to become mother-in-laws and grumpy old men.
The money comes from fishing licenses. It should come from gill netters too but does not. Kali sport fishermen were not allowed to fish for salmon in the whole state this year. But their money is still going for salmon restocking. They will pay and pay and pay and be glad to do it. They would like for MORE of their money to go to restoring the fishery but the state steals the bulk of it.
In alaska, we’ve had stream’s runs destroyed by gold mine pollution (chemical). When they tried replanting fish, they found that the original fish were genetically special to that stream. Replanted fish never took, several trys. So there is some good to come outta this.
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