Show utah fish and game dept proposes trash fish kill at flaming gorge by phil A dotson when utah fish and game department was first ed many fishery problems were approached by trial and error methods these methods not only involved guess work but were highly expensive present day fishery management techniques are based on sound facts LETS COMPARE fishery management with beet farm ing it a farmer wants to plant a beet crop he cultivates the land plants seed and keeps weeds under control if he doesn doean t follow this sequence his crop is usually a total tail fail ure because the young beets cannot compete with weeds the weeds steal plant autri ants sunlight and space from the beets weeds in this case are corn parable to trash fish which compete with game fish for available food cover spawn ing areas space and other necessities of life competition Is on an important biological fac tor encountered by almost every single plant and animal and survival often depends on an ability to share successfully in the competition IT IS ALMOST certain that trash fish will take over flam ing gorge reservoir if not retarded if the river Is not treated before impoundment there may never be another chance the increased volume of water in the reservoir would wu uld make the eradication project financially impossible A good fishery seldom comes about by accident but takes careful planning we can reas ona bly predict on the bast basis s of our investigations and the experience of other fish and game departments what will be the biological chemical and physical changes brought on en by impounding the green creen river continued on page 16 atall ris lt continued from page 0 9 many impoundments seem to burst with an increased pro ductility in microscopic plants and animals which sup aup ply an abundance of food tor for fish life this inc increased ceased food aupp supply ly along with the added space pace factor stimulates stimulated fish 1181 populations to literally explode for instance a female carp under tinder favorable environ mental conditions will pro duce from to 2 eggl in one season other trash fish species have a simi lar high reproductive poten bial introducing hatchery game fish to a new environment such as tile the flaming gorge reservoir without first elim mating the comac competition from trash rash fiali species would be like throwing an untrained youth against dozens of professional fess ional pugs bugs I 1 likewise ike wise the odds would be bc in favor of trash floh crowding out the game fish investigations were in vitiated by department fishery biologists on oil the green river in the area of flaming gorge reservoir it was found after sampling the existing fish pop ions that trash species constituted over 05 95 per cent of all fish present the nant fish are carp bony tall chubs and blue head mountain suckers channel catfish are the only game species present except lor for a few trout near the confluence of tributary streams concluded from invest of tributary streams concluded from invest it was that it would be extremely unlikely that a good sport fishery could be devel aped in flaming G gorge orge reser voir without first removing the traba fish it is anticipated that all of the river and tributary streams dreama from flaming gorge dam to doulder boulder wyoming will be treated to eliminate existing trash fish we are not expecting per cent success because of drainage size and the numerous isolated pools along the green river WE DO EXPECT to subdue the trash fish populations enough to give the game fish more than a fighting chance A cooperative program is beng ing initiated between the wyoming game and fish department and the utah department of fish and game both states are requesting the construction st agency of the flam ing gorge dam as aa part of the cost of the entire project to provide the funds to accomplish this lob job the project is expected to get under way tol fol lowing closure of the dam chemically bradic a t 11 I 1 n 9 trash fish is a proven management technique and has been adopted by most fish and game departments A cremen dous future exists for this type of management tool re search earch to develop selective toxicants toxic ants which will kill only fish has aten go ing on for sev several eral years and has shown promising results PERHAPS SOME DAY in the fore sees seeable ble future we can get rid ot of the chubs carp suckers and perch in our reservoirs servo ser irs and streams without disturbing the trout and other species we prize so highly at the present time several toxicants toxic ants for fish eradication exist on the market but our department uses primarily a product extracted from a plant root found in south america indians indiana of that region for thousands of years have used this compound to collect f ish fish for food the chemical causes of 0 breakdown of cell tissue in the gills thus preventing the fish from extracting oxygen from the water the resulting death is caused by suffocation or in the same way a fish would die it if removed from water THIS TOXICANT is not dangerous to man fish can be safely eaten if recovered when you latch onto that lunker rainbow in flaming gorge reservoir it was made possible as a result of efforts to produce a good sport fishery for the people of the state by removing trash fish from the creel and replacing them with trout |