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Angling Publications - Index

Angling Publications - april2008 - Index

16
TROUT UNLIMITED
Chris Hunt
Saving Idaho’s Kokanee Salmon
Kokanee salmon—
landlocked sockeye—are in
real trouble in Idaho’s Lake
Pend Oreille (pronounced
“pond-oh-ray”) thanks to a
brewing ecological predicament
that has fisheries managers
encouraging anglers to kill
non-native fish to save . . . well
. . . non-native fish.
Kokanee were first introduced
into the large lake, situated
in Idaho’s scenic panhandle,
in the 1930s, where they
eventually provided half of the
lake’s recreational fishery. Native
westslope cutthroat trout
and bull trout provided the
remainder of the fishery, along
with introduced rainbow trout
and, eventually, lake trout.
Unfortunately for the kokanee,
which initially provided a
good supplementary food
source for the cutts and bull
trout, the rainbows and lake
trout blossomed. In the early
1990s, kokanee populations
plummeted thanks to growing
populations of predator fish
and water project operations
in some of the lake’s tributary
streams—some important
spawning habitat was being
exposed during low pool and
low flows, which essentially resulted
in a “double whammy”
for the prized sportfish.
Things have gotten so
bad for the kokanee that the
Idaho Department of Fish &
Game began to pay anglers a
bounty on rainbows and lake
trout—the heads of these nonnative
fish were worth $15 each
through March of this year.
The hope is that excess harvesting
of lake trout and rainbow
trout, coupled with better
water management practices,
will bring some balance back to
the lake and, perhaps one day,
allow anglers to legally pursue
Pend Oreille’s kokanee salmon
again—the fishery was closed
to harvest in 2000.
Perhaps more importantly,
restoring kokanee will prevent
lake trout from taking a bigger
bite out of the native fish
population, a recurring theme
all over the West. For instance,
in Yellowstone Lake, illegally
introduced lake trout are
destroying the last significant
lake habitat for Yellowstone
cutthroats. In California’s Lake
Tahoe, lake trout destroyed Lahontan
cutthroat trout populations.
Without the kokanee as
an ecological buffer in Pend
Oreille, the westslope cutts
could be next on the menu.
But, despite the efforts to
catch and kill rainbows and
lake trout, kokanee populations
are only responding
modestly, and most believe
that’s thanks to improved water
management, which gives
the fish access to important
spawning habitat. Additionally,
the state’s Cabinet Gorge
kokanee hatchery is producing
good numbers of eggs and fry.
There’s hope, according Idaho
Fish & Game, but only if
enough predator fish are eliminated
from the lake to allow
for an in-earnest recovery.
According to Fish & Game,
survival of juvenile kokanee in
the lake today is somewhere
around 10 percent—traditionally,
about 50 to 80 percent
of the young fish survived to
sexual maturity (three to four
years) and were able to spawn.
In 2006, Fish & Game
estimates, predator fish ate
551,000 pounds of kokanee
salmon—about 100,000
pounds more than the actual
production of fish.
Sadly, killing rainbows and
lake trout may only be the tip
of the iceberg.
Troy Trvdy, a long-time
member of the Panhandle
Chapter of Trout Unlimited
in Sandpoint, Idaho, believes
other “exotic” gamefish are
on the rise and will eventually
take a bite out of the kokanee
population, too.
“You can’t cast under a dock
anywhere on the lake without
Will the kokanne population of Lake
Pend Oreille be able to recover?
Eating a few lake trout could help.
finding a smallmouth bass,” he
said during the chapter’s annual
banquet in March. “This lake is
pretty messed up.”
While there’s hope, Trvdy
says, it’s dwindling. More and
more lake trout and rainbow
trout must be removed, just to
give kokanee a chance. There
is some encouraging news—a
commercial element is rapidly
emerging, and lake trout are becoming
increasingly popular as a
menu item and in local food coops.
The non-native char, likely
transplanted to Idaho from the
Great Lakes, is delicious when
smoked, and eating the fish is
slowly gaining popularity in the
panhandle and elsewhere.
If kokanee are to have a
fighting chance, the “perfect
storm” of ecological maneuvering
which landed Pend Oreille
in this predicament to begin
with must be matched by
an equally effective chain of
events.
“We’ve watched it crash,”
Trvdy said. “I hope we can
watch it rebound.”
Chris Hunt is the communications
director for Trout
Unlimited’s Public Lands
Initiative (www.tu.org). Reach
him via e-mail at chunt@tu.org
JOSEPH TOMELLERI ILLUSTRATION