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Show """ jir g -mmm t , , ,.. J W , . . 4 I- - I, ' - fV " 1 "U ' " WYOMING GAME and Fish crews capture koka-nee koka-nee salmon below Fontenelle Reservoir as the fish make their spawning run up the Green River. The agency has a "no net loss" objective of koka-nee koka-nee salmon eggs they take from Flaming Gorge Reservoir. Utah Wildlife Board approves new regulations by Steven Wallis Express Editor The Utah Wildlife Board last Friday removed the slotted limit on Flaming Gorge Lake trout that was placed on the reservoir four years ago to build a trophy lake trout fishery. fish-ery. The, action creates two fishing regulations for the reservoir. The slot limit was removed by Utah, but remains intact on the Wyoming side of the reservoir as the Wyoming Fish and Game approved ap-proved the slot last June. The slot requires any lake trout between 26 to 36 inches long to be immediately released. The replation changes on the Utah side of the reservoir come after af-ter a decline in the number of koka-nee koka-nee salmon, a primary food for the lake trout. If the decline continues, as it has in other reservoirs in similar simi-lar situations, it could affect the lake trout population. "The information gathered in the last four years has absolutely convinced con-vinced us that the slot limit is not the answer," said Steve Bray ton, DWR project leader for Flaming Gorge. ' If 1 current regulations continue, Utah biologists believe the lake trout will soon deplete their food supply which will result in the crash of the kokanee, rainbow and lake trout fisheries. The new Utah regulation, which will go into affect Jan. 1, 1994,' gives all licensed anglers an eight trout or kokanee salmon limit, no more than five may be rainbow trout or kokanee salmon and no more than three may be lake trout or mackinaw. Only one lake trout may exceed 34 inches. The two regulations stem from a difference in methods of maintaining maintain-ing the reservoir's kokanee population. popula-tion. The Wyoming Game and Fish has implemented a program it calls "No Net Loss" for kokanee salmon. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is dedicated to preserving preserv-ing the reservoir's kokanee population popula-tion and maintains an objective of "no net loss" of kokanee salmon eggs from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir system, said Bill Wengcrt, the G&F's fishery biologist biolo-gist for Flaming Gorge. "Simply," said Wengcrt, "the 'no net loss' objective means we put as , many or more kokanee salmon back into the Flaming Gorge system as we take out in spawning operations from fish that have run up the Green River. We have this objective to help solidify the mackinaw or lake trout population and enhance the kokanee fishing for anglers which our fishing public says are high priorities pri-orities in the reservoir." Through Oct 27, G&F biologists had removed 83,000 eggs from kokanee salmon congregated below Fontenelle Reservoir. Although 50,000 fingcrlings arc scheduled for stocking into Boulder Lake near Pinedale next spring, the G&F will make up the difference by stocking fish obtained from eggs taken at New Fork Lake near Pinedale and fingerlings or small fish to be obtained ob-tained from New Mexico and Colorado. "The Game and Fish believes the 'no net loss objective' for kokanee is very important for maintaining a base population for anglers and lake trout forage," Wengert said. 'The kokanee population will fluctuate on its own due to poor productivity and the physical properties of the reservoir. We believe it is best for the reservoir that we not contribute to those 'valleys' in the population." One aspect of the kokanee salmon that Wyoming G&F does not like to talk about is the depredation of kokanee by lake trout. Utah biologists biolo-gists attribute the decline in kokanee koka-nee to be greatly affected by this depredation. In 1991 lake trout ate 950,000 kokanee, suggests studies by DWR. Also during 1991, a record harvest year, the studies found that anglers caught about 54,000 kokanee. Utah has its own egg program to help establish a kokanee population at Strawberry. ' "Because of the early spawning run, the Sheep Creek kokanee are particularly well-suited for introduction introduc-tion into the high altitude Strawberry Reservoir as an integral part of that water's rehabilitation," said Roger Schneidervin, DWR Flaming Gorge Biologist, in a re-, port on the kokanee run. To collect eggs for Strawberry, DWR personnel installed a fish trap near the mouth of Sheep Creek in 1989. A strict protocol is maintained main-tained to protect the integrity of the run and insure the strength of future runs. Biologists estimate that enough habitat exists in Sheep Creek to handle approximately 500,000 eggs. Much of Sheep Creek is too silty or consists of large boulders boul-ders with fast water that is unsuitable unsuit-able for spawning. Too many spawners actually do damage by super-imposing their redds on top of existing ones, destroying or dislodging dislodg-ing eggs. As kokanee enter the Sheep Creek trap, 50 percent are passed upstream until there are enough to saturate the stream. The DWR has come under fire at public meetings from anglers angry that the Sheep Creek egg take is responsible re-sponsible for the decline in kokanee. koka-nee. DWR officials are certain this is not the case. "Strict guidelines are followed to insure that Sheep Creek receives an optimum number of spawning fish, and that future runs are protected," Schneidervin said. "Sheep Creek provides an insignificant portion of the reservoir fishery when compared com-pared to the other slocks." Actual counts of spawning fish over the years have ranged between 300 and 5,000 fish in Sheep Creek. Also in support of this observation Vernal Express Wednesday, Nowmber 10, 1993 17 Dinosaur Monument sets record With two more months remaining, period last year, the October visita- October were 2.294 with a year-to-Dinosaur National Monument has tion of 27,538 is 4.8 percent less date total of 74,248. already exceeded its all-time record than for the same month last year. Superintendent Huffman noted Um,KCr,,fr Vnit0rS- For the last two months visits to that visitation to Dinosaur has been October the half-m.ll.on mark was monumcnt have fewer consistently strong in recent years re last year. Last year there were but added that he felt, due to the Total visitation at Dinosaur 28,935 visits during October and a popularity of the recent Steven Monument at the end of October ycar-to-datc total of 468,441. Speilberg movie, many people was 520,390. Even though this is a wanted to visit "the real Jurassic 11.1 percent increase over the same Total overnight stays during Park." ; is the fact that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department collected over one million eggs from Sheep Creek from 1980 through 1984, and Utah collected an additional 400,000 eggs in 1985, yet the population in the reservoir and the sportfish harvest har-vest was experiencing its most rapid period of growth. Anglers harvested an estimated 34,136 kokanee in 1986, compared to 1,276 fish in 1982, and only a dozen fish in 1978. 'The decline of the kokanee salmon fishery at Flaming Gorge results re-sults from an imbalance in .the numbers num-bers of kokanee and their main predator, the lake trout or mackinaw," macki-naw," said Schneidervin. "Simply put, there are too many lake trout for the existing kokanee and Utah chub forage base, and the number of lake trout must be reduced." re-duced." . , Making more kokanee available for lake trout by reducing fishermen ' harvest has too little if any impact. This approach is being taken by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, which is keeping the lake trout slot regulation in place and lowering the kokanee limit to three fish in Wyoming in 1994. "Unfortunately this is too little too late," Schneidervin said. "In 1991, the record kokanee harvest year, this approach would have saved an estimate esti-mate 14,000 kokanee. However, during a poor kokanee fishing year like we're experiencing in 1993, a three fish limit would do little good." An intensive creel survey conducted con-ducted at Flaming Gorge this year shows that a three-fish kokanee limit lim-it would have saved an estimated 150 fish through May and June. "It is during a poor kokanee year like 1993 that we need additional fish to bolster the spawning population popula-tion and reducing angler harvest won't achieve that goal." A hypothetical regulation change that reduces the lake trout population popula-tion by 10 percent after five years decreases the number of kokanee eaten by 20 percent, or saves approximately ap-proximately 180,000 kokanee per year. A regulation allowing the harvest har-vest of two lake trout per day, with no size restrictions, would save 60,000 kokanee in just the first year. An angler survey conducted in conjunction with the reservoir-wide creel survey shows that over 80 percent per-cent of Flaming Gorge fishermen favor removing the lake trout slot limit and the majority also prefer some reduction in the daily kokanee salmon limit "For any regulation to have an effect, ef-fect, however, it will require a dedi-, dedi-, cated effort on all anglers' part to keep lake trout, especially those fishermen who have become proficient profi-cient at catching macks," Schneidervin said. 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