Sushihunter
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http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/or...sf/2010/03/bill_monroe_to_keep_or_not_to.html
Bill Monroe: To keep or not to keep? Partly clipped fins provide vexing moments for anglers
By Mike Wilson, The Oregonian
March 20, 2010, 10:00AM
Bill Monroe/Special to The Oregonian
The remnant of an adipose fin suggests this spring chinook was mis-clipped before its release from a hatchery.The salmon came easily at first, swirled a few enticing feet beyond the net, then tore off on a trademark spring chinook "boat run," as it's known in the fleet speckling Portland-area waters these days.
We glimpsed the fish's nose and silvery flash but not much else as the battle shifted into high gear for several uncomfortable minutes before the fish slid over the net's rim at the side of the boat.
The final scene in a series of anxious moments was at hand -- hours of trolling, waiting long seconds as the fish chewed the bait, adrenaline-charged contortions to deal with surging runs and a screaming drag, self-doubt about all the knots between you and the hook. And, finally, the tortuous paradox of relief and anxiety as we kept the fish in the water to check for an adipose fin.
A heart-stopping stub jutted stubbornly just ahead of the salmon's tail.
A partial clip!? We checked, rechecked for a scar ahead of the stub, then pulled the fish into the boat; my first of the season.
Washington and Oregon fish agencies annually clip the adipose fin from millions of salmon and steelhead raised and released from state hatcheries.
The fin is an unused ("vestigial") and typically floppy appendage between the dorsal and tail fins. Its removal marks the fish as artificially propagated and thus legal to take home. Fish not missing the fin are considered wild and must be released (ideally without being taken from the net or water) to continue their spawning run to home waters.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife clipped the fins from more than 43 million smolts in 2009, also injecting coded wire tag into the snouts of nearly 7.5 million of them to identify their origins and assist with migration research in rivers and ocean.
Approximately three-quarters of the (projected) half-million or so returning spring chinook salmon passing Portland up the Columbia and Willamette rivers in the next few months should have clipped fins.
A closeup from above shows the "healed scar," a requirement of the Oregon angling regulations for a chinook to be retained. But the clipping process, while unquestionably effective, isn't always clean. The mental moment of deciding about partial clips is far from a rarity in the sport-fishing fleet, where keeping an illegal wild salmon or steelhead is a serious offense.
"Partials are kind of a gray area," said Bill Haugen, who helps coordinate the department's 15 fin-clipping trailers (four of them automated) and up to 20 human clippers in each. "We try for 99 percent ... . We get 100 percent from the robotic trailers."
For the record, photos of this salmon's missing/partial fin were shown to several biologists and Oregon State Police fisheries enforcement officers, including senior staff officers in Salem. All confirmed its hatchery origin.
"It is in the range where it gets tricky due to the rounded portion of the fin remnant," said John North, a department biologist working on the Columbia River management team. "The definition that needs to be met is 'a healed scar where a fish fin has been clipped,' which is more lenient than the old 'removed in it's entirety' language. Any more fleshy margin added to the height of the fin, and I would say it no longer meets the criteria because it would be less clear the fin had been clipped originally."
North said his basic criterion on a partial clip is whether the remnant is stiff, "more so than a typical fleshy adipose."
Haugen said his staff calls this particular fin remnant a "flag." If even a small part of the fin isn't clipped, it will usually regenerate a little bit of itself, although not the entire fin, he said.
"It's not the biologist you need to convince at the boat ramp," North said.
"It takes a lot of practice to look at a fish in the field and call it wild or hatchery," said Sgt. Chris Allori, an Oregon State Police fish and wildlife officer who has taught classes on salmon and steelhead identification to new troopers.
"What I tell (anglers) is if there's any doubt at all, let it go, because once it's dead, it's dead -- wild or hatchery."
First fundraiser: The annual Hawgs-N-Dogs fishing tournament is scheduled March 27 out of the Delta Park area, the first of several similar events during the next two months as anglers mix their celebration of spring with support for worthwhile causes.
Hawgs-N-Dogs, a combination salmon and sturgeon event, is a fundraiser sponsored by the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association to help support local fisheries, the industry's advocacy and sportfishing.
The event (weigh-ins by 3:30 p.m. at Fisherman's Marine & Outdoors in Delta Park) is capped by a (typically) blue-collar picnic at the Kliever Memorial Armory, 10000 N.E. 33rd Drive.
Information and entry forms ($85 per angler, $255 for a team of three) are available at www.nsiafishing.org or by calling 503-631-8859.
-- Bill Monroe
Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
Bill Monroe: To keep or not to keep? Partly clipped fins provide vexing moments for anglers
By Mike Wilson, The Oregonian
March 20, 2010, 10:00AM
Bill Monroe/Special to The Oregonian
The remnant of an adipose fin suggests this spring chinook was mis-clipped before its release from a hatchery.The salmon came easily at first, swirled a few enticing feet beyond the net, then tore off on a trademark spring chinook "boat run," as it's known in the fleet speckling Portland-area waters these days.
We glimpsed the fish's nose and silvery flash but not much else as the battle shifted into high gear for several uncomfortable minutes before the fish slid over the net's rim at the side of the boat.
The final scene in a series of anxious moments was at hand -- hours of trolling, waiting long seconds as the fish chewed the bait, adrenaline-charged contortions to deal with surging runs and a screaming drag, self-doubt about all the knots between you and the hook. And, finally, the tortuous paradox of relief and anxiety as we kept the fish in the water to check for an adipose fin.
A heart-stopping stub jutted stubbornly just ahead of the salmon's tail.
A partial clip!? We checked, rechecked for a scar ahead of the stub, then pulled the fish into the boat; my first of the season.
Washington and Oregon fish agencies annually clip the adipose fin from millions of salmon and steelhead raised and released from state hatcheries.
The fin is an unused ("vestigial") and typically floppy appendage between the dorsal and tail fins. Its removal marks the fish as artificially propagated and thus legal to take home. Fish not missing the fin are considered wild and must be released (ideally without being taken from the net or water) to continue their spawning run to home waters.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife clipped the fins from more than 43 million smolts in 2009, also injecting coded wire tag into the snouts of nearly 7.5 million of them to identify their origins and assist with migration research in rivers and ocean.
Approximately three-quarters of the (projected) half-million or so returning spring chinook salmon passing Portland up the Columbia and Willamette rivers in the next few months should have clipped fins.
A closeup from above shows the "healed scar," a requirement of the Oregon angling regulations for a chinook to be retained. But the clipping process, while unquestionably effective, isn't always clean. The mental moment of deciding about partial clips is far from a rarity in the sport-fishing fleet, where keeping an illegal wild salmon or steelhead is a serious offense.
"Partials are kind of a gray area," said Bill Haugen, who helps coordinate the department's 15 fin-clipping trailers (four of them automated) and up to 20 human clippers in each. "We try for 99 percent ... . We get 100 percent from the robotic trailers."
For the record, photos of this salmon's missing/partial fin were shown to several biologists and Oregon State Police fisheries enforcement officers, including senior staff officers in Salem. All confirmed its hatchery origin.
"It is in the range where it gets tricky due to the rounded portion of the fin remnant," said John North, a department biologist working on the Columbia River management team. "The definition that needs to be met is 'a healed scar where a fish fin has been clipped,' which is more lenient than the old 'removed in it's entirety' language. Any more fleshy margin added to the height of the fin, and I would say it no longer meets the criteria because it would be less clear the fin had been clipped originally."
North said his basic criterion on a partial clip is whether the remnant is stiff, "more so than a typical fleshy adipose."
Haugen said his staff calls this particular fin remnant a "flag." If even a small part of the fin isn't clipped, it will usually regenerate a little bit of itself, although not the entire fin, he said.
"It's not the biologist you need to convince at the boat ramp," North said.
"It takes a lot of practice to look at a fish in the field and call it wild or hatchery," said Sgt. Chris Allori, an Oregon State Police fish and wildlife officer who has taught classes on salmon and steelhead identification to new troopers.
"What I tell (anglers) is if there's any doubt at all, let it go, because once it's dead, it's dead -- wild or hatchery."
First fundraiser: The annual Hawgs-N-Dogs fishing tournament is scheduled March 27 out of the Delta Park area, the first of several similar events during the next two months as anglers mix their celebration of spring with support for worthwhile causes.
Hawgs-N-Dogs, a combination salmon and sturgeon event, is a fundraiser sponsored by the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association to help support local fisheries, the industry's advocacy and sportfishing.
The event (weigh-ins by 3:30 p.m. at Fisherman's Marine & Outdoors in Delta Park) is capped by a (typically) blue-collar picnic at the Kliever Memorial Armory, 10000 N.E. 33rd Drive.
Information and entry forms ($85 per angler, $255 for a team of three) are available at www.nsiafishing.org or by calling 503-631-8859.
-- Bill Monroe
Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
