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This Should Be Interesting: Cowlitz Hatchery Snafu

3785 Views 37 Replies 25 Participants Last post by  Dr. Magill
A river that takes a LOT of pressure off of other rivers. If there's any river that needs a strong hatchery program, it's the Cowlitz. This will not turn out well.

WDFW Admits Losing 514,500 Fish in Cowlitz

http://www.chronline.com/crime/wdfw...cle_22492c02-dfad-11e6-aba5-bb13a52ddef3.html
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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
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
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!
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Not to worry, WDFG has hired the very best to get to the bottom of this mystery. Hopefully an overhead projector is involved.

Cartoon Font Wall Fun Art
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Clearly this is the result of another one of those frivolous law suits by the WFC. I'm not sure how they did it yet but I'm working on it.

TC
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...OH...was I not supposed to drain the water out of "that" tank...
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
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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!
Perhaps our money would be better spent hiring gnomes to steal new fish from neighboring states.
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Ironic that the descrepuincy is with the hatchery. WTF.
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.
I'd gladly gather some boys up to shoot mergs and cormorants all day.
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I'd gladly gather some boys up to shoot mergs and cormorants all day.
Open season would be a lot of fun. Anyone wanna make some decoys?
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.
Jeff,

The net pen loss (of fall chinook, due to vandalism) was in Mayfield Lake, upstream of Mayfield Dam. (It's a lousy project, but a supportive state legislator sees that it gets funded. Lousy because it's plagued with problems that won't go away.) The major loss of steelhead and cutthroat was from the 5-acre rearing ponds at Blue Creek trout hatchery. This particular loss was unprecedented as far as I know.

Sg
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
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).
If one of my students gave the the litany of lame-ass excuses for this fubar, I would fail their ass. This isn't their first rodeo and this screw-up screams of poor operations and especially poor oversight and management. And Tacoma Power's nose is right it the &%& too as it is their license to operate that is at stake.
Natural disasters, such as the warm-water blob, I can understand; searun fishing has sucked for the last two falls as a result. But this is simple incompetence. Fully (and publicly) investigate this screw-up. If found lacking, remove the supervisors, institute new policies, buy modern equipment now (not in "3-6 years").
Steve
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I can't make heads or tails of the article, and I think I have pretty good reading comprehension. Were these being reared in net pens, or in hatchery tanks? And how do you lose nearly 3/4 of your fish, without noticing it?
Reel 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.
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Reel 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.
You watch me cast
You think it's porn
I catch steelhead
before they were born

I land every fish
No matter the time
Chest mount GoPro
Ain't no crime

I live on a creek
Now stocked to the max
Those cowlitz suckers
Aint getting their fish back!
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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
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.

But I agree, the first question I had, excepting acts of God, how can they get away with falling short of meeting their FERC re-licensing requirements/agreements - and what other mitigation efforts will/can they be forced to take?
I always thought that they covered those rearing ponds with netting. I've see that done at Whitehorse and the ponds at Tokal Creek. Those fish don't get eaten.
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