too many triploids!!!

[backyard bucks]

beutiful day on the water with a great friend and the dog on the upper columbia. we ended up getting one wild steelhead and 15 triploids in a few hours of fishing. every pass was bobbers going under..it was lots of fun catching them but problem is now we can't retain the triploids and this is going to impact the spawing salmon and steelhead in a very negative way.. last year we hooked a triploid that was floy tagged and we were able to keep it.. when cleaning it the belly was stuffed full of steelhead eggs. we caught it right below a spot were we were hooking a bunch of steelhead. we took pics of the fish and eggs with cell phone. (not the best pics) but it is very easy to see the impact of just one triploid let along thousands of them in the columbia, okanagon, and the methow..

[dreamunelk]

The triploids did not dig the eggs out of the spawning bed.  Especially since the area you are in is not a spawning area.  So how can they be affecting survival?

[backyard bucks]

i can tell you for a fact that steelhead are spawing in the main stream of the columbia too.. believe it or not.

[dreamunelk]

Okay, then they are just picking up the eggs that did not get buried or get knocked loose from other reds.  Bottom line is they are not going to hatch.  They are doing no damage. This is the way things are.  Be better if it was native fish picking off the loose eggs.  But, the Columbia is full of nonnative fish.

[Knotabite]

Okay, then they are just picking up the eggs that did not get buried or get knocked loose from other reds.  Bottom line is they are not going to hatch.  They are doing no damage. This is the way things are.  Be better if it was native fish picking off the loose eggs.  But, the Columbia is full of nonnative fish.

They are doing no damage?  I did some research (TRIPLOID WITH THE EGGS - Tag# 22432 released from Chief Joseph fish farm on June 17th, 2010 (average weight 3 lbs) and those trips in the picture were caught March 6th.. Sent to fish and wildlife March 7th. I live in the Brewster / Pateros area on the main stem columbia and beleive me there are tons of those trips down here. NO REASON for it. If nets break that easy maybe they need to have double containment? Please remember this article three to four years when once again the steelhead will take a big hit in returning. Then maybe someone will stand up and ask. Are we sure those triploids (2011 NO OXYGEN in water-nitro raise because grand colluee was releasing an enormous amount of water / broken nets -released fish whatever you want to say) had nothing to do with it? Trips are an agreesive feeding trout. We are in a section where you cannot keep trout - i think a good way to control Triploids is to FIN CLIP them!! What we have been hearing up here is people cannot tell the difference between trips and steelhead..     

[BigGoonTuna]

Okay, then they are just picking up the eggs that did not get buried or get knocked loose from other reds.  Bottom line is they are not going to hatch.  They are doing no damage. This is the way things are.  Be better if it was native fish picking off the loose eggs.  But, the Columbia is full of nonnative fish.

yep, that's akin to some of the old timers killing every dolly varden they caught because they were always full of salmon eggs.  they'll move up right below a salmon digging a redd and eat the ones that wash out while the salmon spawn.  sea run cutthroats do the same thing.  doesn't really affect salmon survival at all.

[teal101]

I'd be willing to bet Trips are more predacious on salmon/steelhead smolt than squawfish are.  Guys have been catching them IN the Wenatchee river as well.

[WAcoyotehunter]

There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY the system can support that many fish without some very real consequences.  Triploids are big eaters and will cause trouble in the system if their numbers are too high, which they are.

[Madison]

this board is full of people clueless on fish science.   

[klickman]

Yep another "harmless" invasive specie. 

KLICKMAN

[BigGoonTuna]

invasive?  triploids can't reproduce...every one of them was planted from somewhere.

[dirty24d]

For some clarification:

Triploid trout, steelhead, and salmon, are genetically altered fish. Because they are sterile they do not reproduce but rather, the energy which would have been focused in these fish toward reproduction, goes directly into body growth. Over time these fish become huge. Presently the record trout in the State of Washington is a triploid coming in at 23 pounds

Producing Triploid Fish Stock
Triploidy and triploid fish refer to fish who have three instead of the normal two sex chromosomes. In normal situations, fish retaining either the XX or XY chromosomes are female or male fish. Triploid fish have an extra chromosome, thus their arrangement could be XXX or XXY. In all cases these fish are sterile females or males. Dr Gary Thorgaard, Professor of Biological Sciences at Washington State University, Pullman, WA. who pioneered the process of induced triploidy, suggests that triploid conditions also occur in natural populations of trout. In the natural setting climate change may be the factor producing this condition. Dr. Thorgaard's work suggests that triploidy in trout occurs in the natural population at a level of less than 1 percent.

[dirty24d]

Here's a link to a ton of info on triploids specifically in Washignton State .


http://www.eou.edu/~mmustoe/Fishing.html 

[FC]

yep, that's akin to some of the old timers killing every dolly varden they caught because they were always full of salmon eggs.  they'll move up right below a salmon digging a redd and eat the ones that wash out while the salmon spawn.  sea run cutthroats do the same thing.  doesn't really affect salmon survival at all.

I've watched steelhead do the same thing below spawning humpies...