I hear lots of coho off sooke,that fishery has rebounded, but retention is limited to hatchery fish...the rub? Only a small fraction of hatchery fish are fin clipped,the ‘wild’ coho you release are about 90%. hatchery.Will the DFO ever get it rght? Does anybody outside the recreational fishery industry even care?
Last edited by ratherbefishin; 06-20-2019 at 02:22 PM.
Scrap the fin clipping, Keep the first two coho you land and you’re done.
My thoughts exactly!! Do my best to release with as little damage/trauma possible, but pretty sure 1/2 the bleeders don’t make it. Pisses me off quite a bit that nobody understands what’s happening. Or maybe they just don’t care...
Very bad idea.
That would decimate the wild populations of coho.
You completely missed the point.
Wading through a couple dozen to find your "marked" coho has a hell of a lot bigger impact on wild stocks than what he suggested.
And for that reason, I have been saying the exact same thing for years.
You completely missed the point.
Wading through a couple dozen to find your "marked" coho has a hell of a lot bigger impact on wild stocks than what he suggested.
And for that reason, I have been saying the exact same thing for years.
Nog
I know it seems to you that marking hatchery fish is a trivial thing but it's not.
The difference between wild fish and hatchery fish is night and day.
Hatchery fish are just fodder.
They are not good survivors.
Their survival numbers are much lower than wild fish.
They have to use wild fish for broodstock otherwise we'd be running out of salmon much faster.
Hatchery fish are just meat, they are not good progenitors.
Genetics would be erroded pretty fast.
Especially river fish like coho and chinook that spend a year or more in the hatchery being fed.
Pinks and chum are easy because they are fed only for a short time and head out to the ocean the same year they are born.
That's why they don't even clip pinks and chum.
But from everything I've seen, we should keep the wild and hatchery fish separate.
It's worth it.
1. Human over population
2. Government burden and overreach
I know it seems to you that marking hatchery fish is a trivial thing but it's not.
LOL! I love how you can read my mindset from afar. NOT!
FYI I have been directly involved in populations enhancement programs ranging from in-stream through to full factory hatchery production.
And I've clipped one hell of a lot of fish in my time.
Guess you forgot my life's work was as a biologist. In fisheries...
And yep, the difference can be night and day alright.
But by NOT marking all fish (whether coho or springs) and then MAKING those who fish for them only take the ones that are marked, you subject a much larger number to C&R efforts, along with the related hooking/ handling mortality. If you are not going to clip them all, then the employ of such a rule should be avoided. The results are FAR larger of an impact, over greater numbers, than simply keeping the first two you catch. Really.