The infuriating thing is that water, in sufficient quantities to significantly address productivity, is manageable and far more meaningful to these stocks than bycatch, and yet we pretend we can’t when in fact we choose not to! I’ve stated this many times before, even the Bob Hooton’s of the world are missing the main point, and doing steelhead conservation a disservice, by not focusing on the real issue. Yes, bycatch is an issue when the stock is down to 150 animals, though a strong argument can be made that, at that level, you no longer have a viable population no matter what you do. However, this stock should be in the 2500+ range even in down cycles. It isn’t rec mortality or by catch that has driven this stock to the brink, it is habitat and specifically the lack of water in the Nicola, Bonaparte and deadman systems.
Look at the Nicola Chinook, hatchery fish return b/c the hatchery continues to produce them but no wild fish come back, despite a good proportion of the hatch fish being allowed to spawn “in the wild”. However, just like Big T steelhead, there is virtually zero freshwater recruitment ... not surprising in a system that has limited viable floodplain or riparian habitat, and that has so much water sucked out for hay and cows that not only is there no refuge areas, temps regularly hit the high 20s through summer. Salmonids simply can’t survive at those temps, so outside of a few groundwater influence areas, the vast majority of these interior streams are unhabitable due to our irresponsible management of water.
Sad that we’ve lost this iconic stock! We should be ashamed, but sadly, we’ll continue to do the same to other stocks.
Cheers!
Ukee
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