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Book Inspires Another Look At State Use Of Fish Hatcheries

May 02, 2010 - AUGUSTA -- Recently, a sentence in Anders Halverson's "An Entirely Synthetic Fish" (Yale University Press) nearly tipped me out of my chair.


"(Colorado) stocks more trout per capita," Halverson wrote, "than most any other state in the country."


Thirty years ago, I guided elk hunters in Colorado and thought that every salmonid in tributaries and outlets was wild, so Halverson's quote spoiled my memory of this pristine Rocky Mountains state.


As organizations such as Trout Unlimited love pointing out, states in the West refrain from putting hatchery salmonids in rivers and streams. However, fisheries personnel do stock the heck out of western impoundments, and these hatchery critters do migrate into flowing water, offering sport.


Halverson also pointed out that Colorado and Utah introduced rainbow trout many decades ago and then made this species their official state fish until 1994 and 1997, respectively. Go figure with that logic.


Halverson's book contains the largest bibliography I've ever seen in a text devoted to an outdoor subject, absolutely astonishing, so it's obviously well researched. Barnes & Noble in Augusta carries this title.


Fishing activists often condemn Maine, claiming the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife relies too heavily on hatchery programs. In truth, though, limited revenues stop us from going hog wild with salmonid stocking, so we compare well with most other states.


In Maine's bottom third, IFW does stock waters capable of supporting salmonids but incapable of producing them because of limited spawning and nursery habitat. Without hatcheries, these places would have no trout.


Maine does stock wild trout in limited waters -- say hatchery landlocked salmon over native brook trout. Moosehead Lake pops to mind, a place where fisheries managers introduced salmon and smelt over native brookies and whitefish during the late 19th century.


Stocking Maine's wild trout is less common than fishing activists lead us to believe, though.


In general-law waters, Maine has a smaller salmonid daily bag limit than any other state or province, and furthermore, this state has more waters designated fly-fishing-only than any other state in the nation.


That last comment highlights Maine's rich fly-fishing heritage, but despite that claim, fly rodders represent a small percentage of our anglers.


This state does have a massive general-fishing constituency that includes one-quarter to one-third of our residents. These folks exert pressure on fishing-management policies, and some of them resort to civil disobedience at the proverbial drop of a hat.


One good example involves black crappies. This species now inhabits upwards of 500 waters -- nearly all illegal introductions except for IFW's accidental 1969 stocking in Sebasticook Lake. Also, illegally stocked crappies migrate and establish populations elsewhere.


Eventually, northern pike will also occupy hundreds of Maine waters, particularly in central and southern Maine. More and more introductions and inevitable migration will insure that outcome.


Naturally, salmonid aficionados (such as myself) live for cold-water species, particularly brook trout and landlocked salmon.


Serious fly rodders often forget, though, that the general fishing public outnumbers us big time.


It's a good thing for fly rodders that a century ago and more, sporting-camp owners recognized that fly-fishing-only regulations reduced angling pressure because -- first, not everyone fly-fished, and second, no one can learn the sport overnight. So, to protect investments, entrepreneurs pushed for fly-fishing-only, mostly in shallow ponds surrounding their businesses, creating a fly-fishing paradise. This fly-fishing-only movement would have failed miserably in the 21st century. These days, when Maine activists start hooting and hollering and throwing punches through the air about the need for stricter regulations, they forget we live in a democracy, not a dictatorship.


In short, tighter regs to protect resources must begin with education to win the general public's backing. No one can shove new regulations down a community's collective throats because even when the move succeeds legally, dissenters will break the law often. Western culture adores the Robin Hood myth -- beaten into its head since childhood.


When Ray Owen was IFW commissioner, he worked hard to get a constituency to go along with his quality-fishing initiative and won the day. We must return to this skilled diplomacy.


One last but quick digression. Too often, critics of IFW hatchery programs lack the courage to telephone fisheries biologists and ask why they stock waters that allegedly hold wild salmonid populations. I do confront them, and these professionals furnish a reason. I may disagree with their logic, but broad-minded thinkers can understand both schools of thought.


by Ken Allen, May 2, 2010, Portland Press Herald

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