New strategy to cut spending:That's a butt load of fish. Now I understand why they need to raise my license fees.
Especially like the part where they don't know where they went. I'm thinking Russian micro gill nets
Perhaps our money would be better spent hiring gnomes to steal new fish from neighboring states.New strategy to cut spending:
step 1: don't hatch fish
step 2: oh my... it seems we somehow lost half a million fish!
step 3: ????
step 4: PROFIT!
Open season would be a lot of fun. Anyone wanna make some decoys?I'd gladly gather some boys up to shoot mergs and cormorants all day.
Jeff,The loss occurred in net pens on a lake. Possibly due to bird predation.
You would think after (how many?) decades of operation, they would have worked out a way to prevent this.
Teather a owl over the pens.
Sorry, Sg, but I have to disagree strongly on this negligence by WDFW and Tacoma Power. I am not a hard-core Tacoma Power / WDFW basher but this has me pissed because it should have been entirely preventable. This is not "an act of god", not a natural disaster. This is pure incompetence. Tacoma Power has a license to operate their hydroelectric dams from FERC. As you know better than me, as a condition for that license, they agree to provide mitigation for the negative impacts of their operations on fish populations. Tacoma Power appears to be in violation of its license. [Yeah, I know, the fact that they STILL haven't figured out a way (or be willing to pay enough) to transport juveniles and adults around the dams after many decades should be considered an even bigger violation of their license. But let's not pick at old sores and instead focus on this fresh one.] Tacoma Power contracts with WDFW to raise and release these fish for mitigation purposes. At an extreme, insufficient mitigation should equal of ability to generate power (yeah, I know, never gonna happen).A half million fish is a huge discrepancy at any hatchery, even one the size of Cowlitz. Nonetheless, losses happen at hatcheries, no matter how many alarm systems, redundant back up systems, etc. The number of ways things can go wrong at a hatchery - and it looks like WDFW may have found or invented yet another - I'm sometimes surprised when things go especially well.
Just as I posted in another thread that commercial and tribal commercial fishermen are not entitled to disaster compensation for a poor salmon season, because runsizes naturally vary from high to low, neither are the commercial and recreational fishermen who fish for and catch Cowlitz origin fish entitled to the same level of abundance every year. Cowlitz runs have had down years before due to above average losses of juveniles, just not as large as the loss of last spring.
Sg
You watch me castReel Priorities simply caught them all, not sure why this is being called a mystery.
Dude hits Mayfield Lake for a day and the water level drops 18 inches from all the fish caught.
It's funny that in Eastern Washington, orchards and vineyards that are much, much larger than a series of 5 acre lakes get covered with netting every year. If bird predation is a problem, then maybe they should call in a few orchard workers to cover the ponds. Based upon how quickly the netting goes up around here as the fruit ripens, they'd get the job done in no time.Sorry, Sg, but I have to disagree strongly on this negligence by WDFW and Tacoma Power. I am not a hard-core Tacoma Power / WDFW basher but this has me pissed because it should have been entirely preventable. This is not "an act of god", not a natural disaster. This is pure incompetence. Tacoma Power has a license to operate their hydroelectric dams from FERC. As you know better than me, as a condition for that license, they agree to provide mitigation for the negative impacts of their operations on fish populations. Tacoma Power appears to be in violation of its license.... If found lacking, remove the supervisors, institute new policies, buy modern equipment now (not in "3-6 years").
Steve
