Get Your Rod and Reel Ready, Badger Mountain Charlie

[Calamity Kris]

Quote

Thousands of salmon have escaped and are threatening native fish populations. 

As many as 305,000 Atlantic salmon have been accidentally released into the waters near the San Juan Islands in Washington State, and officials are asking anyone with a valid fishing license to help reel the escapees back in.

The breakout happened Saturday when a net imploded at the Cooke Aquaculture net pen operated off Cypress Island. Thousands of 10-pound salmon fled from the containment out into open water.

In a report from The Seattle Times, tribal fishers are calling the accident “a devastation,” and are concerned about the negative impact this could have on native salmon populations. Many fishers in the area have concerns about the Atlantic salmon preying on the native Pacific salmon babies.

A member of the Lummi Natural Resources staff and fish commission, G.I. James, told The Seattle Times, “It is potentially a disease issue, and impact on our fish, as dire a shape as they are in, right now any impact to them is difficult to absorb.”

James is concerned about the wild Pacific salmon as they face enough trouble already without the addition of Atlantic salmon invading their home waters.

 

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is just as concerned for the fish population and is urging people to catch as many of the Atlantic salmon as they can, with no size or number limit.

“Catch as many as you want,” Ron Warren, the fish program assistant director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, has stated. “We don’t want anything competing with our natural populations. We have never seen a successful crossbreeding with Atlantic salmon, but we don’t want to test the theory.”

 

Cooke Aquaculture released a statement this morning blaming “exceptionally high tides and current coinciding with this week’s solar eclipse” for the net breaking and the ensuing catastrophic damage.

Cooke continued in the statement, saying “It will not be possible to confirm exact numbers of fish losses until harvesting is completed and an inventory of fish in the pens has been conducted.”

It is unknown the exact number of fish that escaped, but Warren said the net was holding about three million pounds of fish when it imploded.

The accident is still under investigation.

 

 

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

Uh... so how come all them Atlantic salmon were there in a net in the first place...?  

[Sedalia Dave]

50 minutes ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

Uh... so how come all them Atlantic salmon were there in a net in the first place...?  

 

Because Stupidity knows no limits.

 

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172]

1 hour ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

Uh... so how come all them Atlantic salmon were there in a net in the first place...?  

Aquafarming. 

 

WDFW is having a kitten. 

So now we can't fish for Pacific Salmon because they have managed them out of existence, and they have a wind fall of Atlantic Salmon that they want everybody to catch because they compete with the native fish in the salt and rivers. 

 

What makes me wonder is why they permit the farming of them in the first place. If they want Atlantic Salmon to raise, take them to Maine. 

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172]

Well, guess they are going nuts catching them. They say 305,000 escaped ( The Great Fish Escape)  and WDFW is going nuts.

They have been spotted as far south as Whidbey Island,and the pens are in the Straits of Juan De Fuca, That is about 50 mile radius.  

Being hatchery fish, they have no natural instincts for survival, so were thought to be milling around the San Juans. Hah! guess again, Homer!

It is recommended that chumming with gravel might work, since is sounds like food pellets hitting the water. 

 

It is going to be interesting to see the fall out from all of this. 

1. The influence on native salmon and steelhead, which are already in jeopardy due to poor hatchery practices by the state and tribes. 

2. What reproduction pattern will they develop and will they eventually be added to the inventory of catchable and regulated species.

3. If natural spawning does take place, where and which rivers will they select, and how will that affect the regulations for those waters?

    We have a book full or regs now, who needs more. 

4. The nets that they were  released from were reported to be 40+ years old nets. Who knew that time and salt water would degregate them? 

     And why were they not supervised by the State  to begin with? And what are they doing in the Straits/ Puget Sound anyway. 

5. Since these fish were fed pellets that contained medicine to control health of a food product, now the worry is what will happen to the Orca and 

   Sea Lions that might feed on them?  WHAT ABOUT THE PEOPLE THAT WOULD HAVE EATEN THEM?

 

You can't make this stuff up, people.  

 

 

[Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life]

Atlantic Salmon don't die after spawning like their Pacific cousins do. Might have a sustaining population.............

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172]

32 minutes ago, Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life said:

Atlantic Salmon don't die after spawning like their Pacific cousins do. Might have a sustaining population.............

That is what I am thinking too. But neither do steelhead, and they have dang near killed them off too, at least the wild ones. 

I am, however, willing to bet that the State officials will figure out a way to legislate the Atlantic Salmon into extinction.

Either that or tax them to death.