Lake Tahoe is no goldfish bowl

“We believe that these goldfish were originally introduced to Lake Tahoe by well-intentioned pet owners.”

(via:USDA)

Wild Steelhead Victory!

Some good news from the Native Fish Society

Thanks to continued pressure from our Save Sandy Salmon Campaign, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) suspended its collection of wild winter steelhead this year for its hatchery programs in the Sandy, Clackamas, Santiam, McKenzie and Middle Fork Willamette Rivers.

Hundreds of wild steelhead will be free to spawn in their natal streams this spring instead of being captured and spawned artificially to boost hatchery numbers!

The comments in the Oregon Live article are a good read.

Air-Spawning Steelhead - A Photographic Journey

Photo: Angela Feldmann

For the past three years staff from Nez Perce Tribal Fisheries (NPT), Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC), and the University of Idaho (UI) have come to the Dworshak hatchery to collect female North Fork Cleawater steelhead for their kelt reconditioning program.

LINK (via: The Fish Ladder)

Tunanomics: the story of the million dollar fish

Japan went wild when a single tuna sold for $1.7m. But far from being a cause for celebration, the record price reveals a species that's sinking fast.

LINK (via: The Independent)

Fish on Prozac Are Violent And Obsessive

Prozac’s host of side effects aren’t just limited to depressed humans. Fish, too, suffer when the drug washes into their streams, rivers and lakes. When people excrete Prozac’s active ingredient, fluoxetine, in their urine, the chemical finds paths into natural waterways through sewage treatment plants that are unequipped to filter it out. When male fish ingest the drug, it seemingly alters their minds to the point of dysfunction and even destruction. 

LINK (via:Smithsonian)

Hatchery Threatens Native Fish

Steelhead trout from a Northern California fish hatchery prey upon and interbreed with threatened native fish, in violation of the Endangered Species Act, an environmental group claims in court.

The Environmental Protection Information Center sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and five top officers of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, in Federal Court. It claims the defendants hatch and release the trout without proper clearance, to stock streams and lakes for recreational fishing.

The nonprofit group claims that the hatchery fish "compete with, prey upon, or interbreed with native wild coho and Chinook salmon and wild steelhead trout that are listed as threatened with extinction under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). The hatchery steelhead trout cause a 'take' of wild salmon and steelhead that is illegal in the absence of authorization by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)."

LINK (via: Courthouse News)