03-22-2018, 12:50 AM
I don't know if anyone follows the massive Laker problem that Yellowstone Lake has been dealing with for over a decade, but I wonder if FG could end up with their situation.
The Lake Trout was introduced to Yellowstone, they think by bucket biologist, sometime in the late 90s I believe. They apparently wiped out about 80% of the native Cutthroat population. They estimate that each mature Laker consumes approximately 42 Cutthroat a year. For many years now, they have had to hire private contractors that do nothing but hunt and destroy Lakers using mostly nets. They spend millions a year. It has taken them years to bend the curve down to where they now believe the Laker population is decreasing and that was even killing well over 100,000 fish each year. Last year they removed over 320,000 but still feel it will take perhaps another decade before they can crash the Laker population. The Cutthroat population is very slowly recovering.
I wonder how FG has avoided Lakers taking over like they did in Yellowstone. Especially since in Yellowstone they claim the biggest threat is the large adults because they produce thousands of eggs when they spawn. Yet in FG they want to rid the lake of the smaller pups and keep the larger Lakers.
Very interesting to see what has happened at Yellowstone and now to see that there seems to be a worry about Lakers taking over to at least some degree in FG.
It is also interesting to see fisherman at FG holding up big Laker trophies and then taking care to release them, and then see pictures of similar sized fish being netted and killed by the thousands in Yellowstone. There you are mandated to catch and kill every laker. They just drop them back into the lake.
If FG does have a Laker takeover brewing can the fisherman even make a dent? How many Lake Trout are actually caught by fisherman at FG each year?
No real point here. Just an interesting and potentially similar situation seems to be developing at FG as what developed at Yellowstone. I would hate to see the Kokes vanish from FG like the Cutthroat just about did from Yellowstone. Sorry, but I wouldn't miss some of the other unnamed species. My wife is partial to Salmon meat.
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The Lake Trout was introduced to Yellowstone, they think by bucket biologist, sometime in the late 90s I believe. They apparently wiped out about 80% of the native Cutthroat population. They estimate that each mature Laker consumes approximately 42 Cutthroat a year. For many years now, they have had to hire private contractors that do nothing but hunt and destroy Lakers using mostly nets. They spend millions a year. It has taken them years to bend the curve down to where they now believe the Laker population is decreasing and that was even killing well over 100,000 fish each year. Last year they removed over 320,000 but still feel it will take perhaps another decade before they can crash the Laker population. The Cutthroat population is very slowly recovering.
I wonder how FG has avoided Lakers taking over like they did in Yellowstone. Especially since in Yellowstone they claim the biggest threat is the large adults because they produce thousands of eggs when they spawn. Yet in FG they want to rid the lake of the smaller pups and keep the larger Lakers.
Very interesting to see what has happened at Yellowstone and now to see that there seems to be a worry about Lakers taking over to at least some degree in FG.
It is also interesting to see fisherman at FG holding up big Laker trophies and then taking care to release them, and then see pictures of similar sized fish being netted and killed by the thousands in Yellowstone. There you are mandated to catch and kill every laker. They just drop them back into the lake.
If FG does have a Laker takeover brewing can the fisherman even make a dent? How many Lake Trout are actually caught by fisherman at FG each year?
No real point here. Just an interesting and potentially similar situation seems to be developing at FG as what developed at Yellowstone. I would hate to see the Kokes vanish from FG like the Cutthroat just about did from Yellowstone. Sorry, but I wouldn't miss some of the other unnamed species. My wife is partial to Salmon meat.
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