As part of the Kootenay Lake Action Plan to recover kokanee stocks, some bull trout will be removed from the Duncan River, below the Duncan Dam, this summer, according to a news release from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNRO).
“Other actions to recover kokanee stocks in Kootenay Lake include continued stocking of kokanee eggs, increasing angling opportunities for bull trout, and removing bull trout from the Kaslo/Keen and Hamill creeks in early fall. Removal of bull trout is a short-term strategy to improve kokanee recovery,” the news release states.
Bull trout prey on kokanee and are seen as a threat to kokanee recovery.
“Bull trout spawning populations increased by more than 100 per cent between 2015 and 2017, with approximately 3,500 bull trout spawners in 2017 alone,” the news release states.” The health of the Kootenay Lake Gerrard rainbow trout and bull trout depend on the health of kokanee populations. Modest removals of bull trout will help recover kokanee stocks, which will benefit both rainbow trout and bull trout in the long term.”
The 2016 Kootenay Lake Action Plan was developed by an advisory team with representatives from the ministry, Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C., the BC Wildlife Federation and First Nations. The advisory team recommended additional stocking and predator management in May 2018.
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About 40 residents of the Lardeau area gathered at Duncan Lake on July 12 protest the bull trout cull.
“The thing that was most surprising was the surprise itself,” says Rhonda Batchelor, a member of the group Friends of the Lardeau. “It seemed so clandestine. There was no public consultation, no notification, and when we found out it was in our neighbourhood it was very distressing because it was going on right where we live.”
Batchelor said biologists from the ministry came and met with the group at the demonstration.
“They were great,” she said. “They gave a great science lesson to try to rationalize what they were doing, they were very patient and clear. They told us they would answer questions until we had no more.”
She added that bull trout despite its numbers locally is a blue listed (vulnerable) species.
The problem, Batchelor says, is that fishery decisions are being made with only the sports fishery in mind and not with a bigger-picture ecological perspective. She said the Freshwater Fisheries Society, which funds government research from fishing licence revenues, has a sport fishing bias and has undue influence over governments.
“The preferred angler target is the the source of funding is deeply implicated in the decisions that are being made and it is substituting for real scientific planning,” she said.
The FLNRO news release states that captured bull trout will be frozen and then provided to local food banks.
More from the news release:
• Historically, the number of spawning kokanee in Kootenay Lake have ranged from 250,000 to nearly 2.2 million. This number declined to 18,000 in 2017. This decline has been caused by historically high kokanee predator abundance (bull trout and Gerrard rainbow trout).
• The ministry began stocking kokanee eggs in 2015. Since then, 16 million eggs have been stocked. There are plans to stock another five million to seven million eggs this fall.
• Populations of the kokanee (spawners and in-lake abundance) and bull trout will be assessed this fall. Gerrard rainbow trout will be surveyed in the spring, to assess the impact on kokanee numbers.
Related stories:
• ‘It’s tough to be God’ — A story of wobbling fish populations
• Kootenay Lake fishery rescue plan presented
bill.metcalfe@nelsonstar.com
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