Enjoyed your post and your knowledge on the subjects you wrote about is far
above mine. I have done a 360 on the subject of net pens. A recent
article, I believe in Flyfisherman Mag., quoted a Scandinavian source as
stating, "Any river entering the salt, within 3 miles of net pens, WILL NOT
have native fish."...the pens are that destructive. They applauded the
Eastcoast decision to reject net pens. I have learned, as you have stated,
to take, what fly fisherman suggest as fact, with a grain of salt, until all
the evidence is in.....to much emotion involved. Jere
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Wolf" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2001 1:36 AM
Subject: Re: sea lice
> Nicholas,
>
> Its been my experience that cutthroat loaded with sea lice mix in with
those
> that don't. I see this all over the deep south sound and even up into the
more
> open main basin areas. I Believe the sea lice that were supposedly
responsible
> for the Irish trout problems (even though the stronger evidence was major
> poaching with tight mesh nets), attached to the gills of the fish. The sea
lice
> in the sound are the limpet like copepods that attach themselves to the
back of
> the fish and are found no where near the gills. I have never been able to
tell
> while playing a cutt if it was infected with copepods or not until I could
> clearly see his back. I have not been able to find any good science on
the
> subject and do not know what the relationship between host and parasite
is. I
> use the copepods as a way of gathering information on the run timing of
the fish
> i catch. The diversity of the runs of cutthroat put them spawning up
rivers as
> early as november maybe even october all the way through April and May.
The
> copepods attach themselves to the cutts once they spend a certain amount
of time
> in the salt water so one can conclude that a cutt in Feb. or March covered
with
> copepods is either a fish that has wintered over in the salt or an early
run
> fish. In any case a cutt need only a bit of fresh water to shake the
critters.
> Another gap in the science is that we have no data on the amount of
copepods
> before the net pens or after. Then we have to look at the life cycle of
the
> copepods and determine when the populations are at their greatest during
the
> year and what fish are present at these times. I have followed certain
pods of
> cutts over the years and have observed no loss of populations with fish
that
> are more prone to infestation than others. A few years back when the
atlantic
> salmon escaped from the pens near Bremerton, we had a fishing emergency
and had
> to get to the scene right away to test our various patterns on the run
away
> fish. I do not recall seeing any limpet like copepods on the atlantics.
Did
> anybody else? I can most definitely say there is no correlation between
the
> infestation of the sea runs and the proximity of the net pens. There is a
more
> dangerous threat to our cutts and salmon in the sound in the form of gill
nets.
> The state record sea run is around 6 lbs. How many cutts have you seen
over 22
> -24 inches? A four inch mesh will take these beauties out in a hurry. Just
think
> what it could be..............
>
> The net pens could be a great help to our dwindling salmon runs in the
Puget
> Sound. They have the potential to take the load off our remaining wild
stock (I
> use the term wild loosely), while still keeping us active and interested
in our
> sport. Before we run the salmon farmers out of town, make sure we have
the best
> science available to make our case.
>
> T Wolf
>
> Nicholas Lowry wrote:
>
> > Thanks to all of you who replied to my question about sea lice. The
> > consensus seems to be that sea run cutthroat in some areas of Puget
Sound
> > carry heavy loads of these parasites, whilst those from other areas
don't.
> >
> > My reason for asking was that the last two cutts that I caught (in South
> > Sound) were both very heavily infested, and one of them looked none too
> > healthy with it. The only other time I caught a fish which looked like
> > that was a sea run brown trout (sea trout) in Western Ireland, in the
> > early 90's.
> >
> > I'm sure many of you who read the various angling publications will see
> > where I am going with this. The sea trout fisheries in Ireland and
> > Scotland collapsed in the late 80's and early 90's, shortly after the
vast
> > expansion of salmon farming in the area. The figures from the fishery at
> > Loch Maree are something like a drop from an average of about 6000 fish
> > caught per year to a total of just 50-100 fish.
> >
> > The reason most often put forward for this collapse was the effect of
> > elevated levels of sea lice infestation caused by the presence of a
> > concentrated source of lice in the salmon pens. The evidence for this is
> > mostly circumstantial, but is very compelling. (This web page gives a
> > decent summary of the science: http://indigo.ie/~seatrout/sos_sci.htm).
> >
> > >From the little I know about sea run cutthroat, they seem to have
similar
> > habits to sea run brown trout, in that they stay close to the coast and
> > don't range very far from their natal streams. This makes them more
prone
> > to infestation from a local source of parasites than a salmon that
leaves
> > the coastal area and feeds in the open ocean. The implication of this is
> > clear. With the scale of salmon farming increasing in Puget Sound, I
think
> > that there is reason to be concerned that there may be increased
parasite
> > loads on coastal salmonids.
> >
> > So to the next question. Where are the salmon net pens in the Sound, and
> > where are the areas where the cutthroat have the greatest number of
> > parasites? The studies done in Ireland and Scotland showed that there
was
> > a correlation between the distance from a salmon pen and the parasite
> > load. Is it the same here?
> >
> > Nick.
> >
> > On Fri, 6 Jul 2001 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> >
> > > I find sea lice on most Cutt's but not all. I just read a report that
said
> > > it depends on the area you're fishing and I agree with that. Some
place
> > > you'll find the SeaRuns just covered and others nothing at all.
> > >
> > > What is the pupose of your straw poll?
> > >
> > > Tom Bolender
> > >
>
>
>
