hatchery egg collection shortfall reaching critical point

[Tim Bromund]

BUFFALO NEWS ARTICLE

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/n ... 99100.html

SYRACUSE PAPER ARTICLE http://www.syracuse.com/poststandard/st ... xml&coll=1

EMERGENCY, Guys, this is serious. Time is running out for this egg taking season. The State needs to GET SOME PRESSURE TO ""IMMEDIATELY"" TAKE WHATEVER ACTION POSSIBLE TO COLLECT AS MANY EGGS AS POSSIBLE IN THE SHORT PERIOD THAT IS LEFT TO DO SO. They are well under 50% of the way to their goal for eggs and fast running out of time. As it has been explained to us at LOTSA , the Salmon River, as the brood stock stream, will get 100% of its stocking allotment REGARDLESS, with all the rest of the stocking sites receiving their pro-rated proportions of what little is left (if there is any). (read: not very many fish to be stocked anywhere but the salmon river next spring).

As indicated above in the Buffalo News article, the DEC along with volunteers collected eggs both by electroshocking 18 Mile Creek and requesting eggs and milt from fishermen a Fisherman’s Park on Friday and Saturday. Well, we EQUALED THE BEST DAY THEY HAD AT THE HATCHERY THIS YEAR ON FRIDAY AT 18 MILE AND THE QUALITY OF THE EGGS WERE EXCELLENT.

EVERYONE PLEASE CONTACT YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVES TO PRESSURE THEM TO AUTHORIZE AND ENACT WHATEVER MEASURES ARE NECESSARY (MORE ELECTROSHOCKING AT TRIBS SUCH AS 18 MILE OAK ORCHARD, GENESEE RIVER ETC.) for as long as necessary TO ENSURE THE DEC GETS THE 3+ MILLION EGGS IT NEEDS TO FULFILL OUR CHINOOK SALMON STOCKING NEEDS FOR NEXT YEAR.

In real terms, what this means is there will be NO PEN PROJECTS anywhere on the lake next spring and what few fish are remaining after the Salmon River stocks are fulfilled, will be spread out across all the other stocking sites around the Lake. That could be 5000 fish per site, it could be 1000 fish per site, it could be no fish at any other stocking site if all of the fish raised are needed to fulfill the Salmon River’s needs to ensure sufficient returns to the hatchery.

There is still a small window to get this done before the salmon run is completely over for the year, but we need to act fast, every day this action is delayed is one less opportunity to take the needed eggs from other sites.

Thanks,

Tim Bromund

LOTSA

[gokudl3]

They should of followed motoman after his outings to the genny, seriously that does sound horrible and i hope they pull of a miracle before it is to late.

Thanks Tim for the links

Doug

[motoman]

yes the genny is still loaded ,if they drop a boat in and make the run up river they could get there eggs , they have too know this , tons of salmon around in the tribs , um yes i could lead them but i"m sure they can get them if they really want too, i mean come on the dec has a large network of guys too ,but i would love to be a part of that ,im aready thinking i can tell keakacatchrelease & MRfishingtoughguy i cought and released 1/2 of there fish ! Ill make some calls in the a.m , jonny............... o that was a joke u 2

[jason]

if you find any dec officer around the steams and river now i would be suprised. if they had a couple at the oak this weekend the would have made alot of money. i seen guys use weighted hooks trouble hooks even a guy use 2 trouble hooks a once. i seen the coolest thing this weekend 2 guys hooked the same fish in the mouth one on each side. they both pulled so hard, that they pull the fish out of the water, and the fish was suspended in the air for a min. well the guys fought over who hooked the fish 1st.

[Storm Warning II]

Why are they so short Tim? Too many juvies running the tribs? Too small a population running the tribs? I am not sure that I understand the root of the problem.

Thanks for the info.

[Tim Bromund]

The problem is the drought this year kept the water so low in the salmon river that the fish couldn't make it up to the hatchery in sufficient numbers. Unfortunately that created a situation where a lot of fish were trapped in the lower SR and easy pickins for the circus. it also made a lot of fish spawn in the river itself instead of running back to the hatchery, from what I understand, the king run is all but over on the SR for the year.

Tim