04-22-2019, 11:05 PM
I hope I can answer some questions and clear some misunderstanding up.
1) All of the wild cutthroat trout eggs that are collected from Swan Creek MUST go back into Bear Lake with one exception. A few hundred eggs are kept every other year to replace captive Bear Lake Cutthroat Trout brood stock in the UDWR hatchery system. The brood stock then produces the eggs for stocking in other waters throughout the state that use Bear Lake Cutthroat Trout (Strawberry is one of those waters)
2) Only a fraction of the Bear Lake Cutthroat Trout that run up Swan Creek are actually used for eggs/milt collection. The other fish are measured, weighed, tagged and moved upstream so they can spawn naturally in the stream. This was not the case 15 or more years ago. At that time ALL the Cutthroat Trout were spawned. Having the ability to pass fish to spawn naturally is a testament to: A) the habitat projects in the tributary streams (both UT and ID streams) which has improved spawning and rearing habitat; B) fish screens which keep both adult Cutthroat Trout as well as juveniles/larvae out of the irrigation diversions; and C) intricate work with land developers which as now allowed more stable instream flows throughout the year.
3) The UDWR and IDF&G are currently evaluating the fin clip regulation on Bear Lake. It will be two years or so from now before a decision can be made since we do not know the number of fish produced in the streams or just how stable the population of adult cutthroat trout are. We would rather make a mistake on the side of caution before allowing anglers to harvest unclipped fish and potentially have the public harvesting all the large, adult, spawning-aged unclipped fish as part of their 2 fish limit. Bear Lake is water where Cutthroat Trout (and lake trout, Bonneville whitefish, etc.) grow slow and can live a long time. Its also unproductive, nutrient-wise, so Cutthroat Trout may not spawn every year since it takes a lot of energy for that fish to produce eggs/milt. Our tagging efforts show that some Cutthroat Trout may spawn every other year or even every third year.
4) So, why do we have the regulation if we are taking eggs and then stocking back those same fish? Someone asked whats the difference between the wild-produced fish versus the same fish reared in a hatchery. Actually, there is some evidence that the wild-produced fish indeed have a survival advantage over the hatchery-reared fish. This difference may not been large, but right now, again we don't know just how significant that margin of survival is. We hope to have that question answered when the regulation question is addressed.
5) It might feel as if you are "wasting" a fish if you deep-hook it and release it knowing it is going to die. However, even if that fish dies there are several biological uses for that fish. Raptor food, food for other fish (cutthroat and/or lake trout), the nutrients of that fish will be recycled in the Bear Lake food chain which is pretty sparse when compared to other waters. We know there is hooking mortality and that will be factored into any potential regulation change evaluation.
Obviously, I can't reply to all questions on here, but I hope that clears up any confusion or questions some people have had. Thanks for being supportive of a unique lake with an extremely unique fish population!
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1) All of the wild cutthroat trout eggs that are collected from Swan Creek MUST go back into Bear Lake with one exception. A few hundred eggs are kept every other year to replace captive Bear Lake Cutthroat Trout brood stock in the UDWR hatchery system. The brood stock then produces the eggs for stocking in other waters throughout the state that use Bear Lake Cutthroat Trout (Strawberry is one of those waters)
2) Only a fraction of the Bear Lake Cutthroat Trout that run up Swan Creek are actually used for eggs/milt collection. The other fish are measured, weighed, tagged and moved upstream so they can spawn naturally in the stream. This was not the case 15 or more years ago. At that time ALL the Cutthroat Trout were spawned. Having the ability to pass fish to spawn naturally is a testament to: A) the habitat projects in the tributary streams (both UT and ID streams) which has improved spawning and rearing habitat; B) fish screens which keep both adult Cutthroat Trout as well as juveniles/larvae out of the irrigation diversions; and C) intricate work with land developers which as now allowed more stable instream flows throughout the year.
3) The UDWR and IDF&G are currently evaluating the fin clip regulation on Bear Lake. It will be two years or so from now before a decision can be made since we do not know the number of fish produced in the streams or just how stable the population of adult cutthroat trout are. We would rather make a mistake on the side of caution before allowing anglers to harvest unclipped fish and potentially have the public harvesting all the large, adult, spawning-aged unclipped fish as part of their 2 fish limit. Bear Lake is water where Cutthroat Trout (and lake trout, Bonneville whitefish, etc.) grow slow and can live a long time. Its also unproductive, nutrient-wise, so Cutthroat Trout may not spawn every year since it takes a lot of energy for that fish to produce eggs/milt. Our tagging efforts show that some Cutthroat Trout may spawn every other year or even every third year.
4) So, why do we have the regulation if we are taking eggs and then stocking back those same fish? Someone asked whats the difference between the wild-produced fish versus the same fish reared in a hatchery. Actually, there is some evidence that the wild-produced fish indeed have a survival advantage over the hatchery-reared fish. This difference may not been large, but right now, again we don't know just how significant that margin of survival is. We hope to have that question answered when the regulation question is addressed.
5) It might feel as if you are "wasting" a fish if you deep-hook it and release it knowing it is going to die. However, even if that fish dies there are several biological uses for that fish. Raptor food, food for other fish (cutthroat and/or lake trout), the nutrients of that fish will be recycled in the Bear Lake food chain which is pretty sparse when compared to other waters. We know there is hooking mortality and that will be factored into any potential regulation change evaluation.
Obviously, I can't reply to all questions on here, but I hope that clears up any confusion or questions some people have had. Thanks for being supportive of a unique lake with an extremely unique fish population!
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