From Deseret News archives:
Strawberry sees fewer kokanee salmon this year
The number of arriving kokanee salmon in the spawning traps along Strawberry River is down.
The reasons, said Alan Ward, project leader for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, could fall on predators, basic survival and the fact that the run three years ago was not good and therefore the egg harvest was not good. And the spawning fish this year are in that age class.
Ward said kokanee typically go through cycles, so it's not uncommon to see good years and low years in the traps.
He said there are still enough fish coming into the traps and river for people to see. The spawn typically runs to the first or second week in October.
"We had two good years and now we're into another poor year. It's nothing we can predict. We spend a lot of time trying to figure out why we get a poor run, but it's just one of those things we have to deal with," he said.
Gillnet samplings in the spring and fall seldom trap kokanee. The fish stay out in deeper water and school up, "so trying to find the fish is like finding a needle in a haystack. It's not something we can sample," added Ward.
"There's simply no good way of predicting how well the run will go. We see them when they come to spawn."
Even during the summer, during prime fishing months, it's difficult to measure how the kokanee will run.
Those fishermen who know what they're doing can catch fish, but the average fishermen won't catch many, and when they do it's usually by accident while they're out fishing for trout.
After spending a lifetime, which is typically between 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 years, as a silver-colored fish with evenly rounded features, the kokanee undergo an incredible metamorphosis going into the spawn. The male's changes are the most pronounced.
Their skin turns bright red, except the head, which turns black. In the case of the male salmon, their bodies actually compress and form a large hump on their backs. Their jaws elongate and hook.
At this point they return to the stream where they were released or hatched, start new life in the form of eggs and then die.
Some fish will spawn naturally. That is, they will find a spot in the river, in twos, one male, one female, and lay and fertilize their eggs.
Others will swim into a fish trap, place themselves in the hands of crews from the DWR, be stripped of eggs and sperm, and then die.
The end is inescapable. The fate of their young, however, can be determined to some degree.
Survival of hatchery-raised eggs is upward of 50 percent.
Spawning naturally in the rivers, survival is around 5 percent, sometimes maybe up to 10 percent. But survival is a lot less.
Last year, the DWR hoped to gather 2 million eggs from 1,500 female kokanee. Collection this year will be much lower.
The DWR's best year was in 2000 when 15,000 fish ran through the traps at Strawberry.
To help improve survival, fish are stocked near streams and rivers, which are then imprinted on fish. They will live their lives in the depths of Strawberry, then return to the place where they were released, start new life and then die.
E-mail: grass@desnews.com
