Morgan-E

Thanks. It is quite an undertaking by the researchers of Cornell. In the end they would still be looking at the female DNA if they are using the mitochondrial DNA - even with males. Love the Maury comment. In order to get bigger fish they would actually have to take time and effort to separate the sizes as they came into the hatchery and then try to only use three and four year olds to spawn to try to artificially direct genetic selection towards potentially bigger fish (more in the lake to try to get to maturity without being caught in the first 2-3 years). The super large fish in Michigan are older fish that have made it to maturity. With the cuts out there the pressure has moved to other fish species and allowed them to get to this size / age class. Their bait density / biomass is no different and maybe lower than ours on a cubic hectare basis. In the end I think that they are happy with numbers / catch rate and not having to do more work with the shoestring budgets and manpower that they have available. They truly are doing a great job with the resources they have available. Most college kids would mess things up more than help with many of them having a hard time identifying a guppy. If any study, trying to figure out if selective breeding would make a difference, (which we all know that it should) was going to take place in any form, it would need to be driven by a grant with a university heading it and us charter captains would be more efficient at separating the species, gender, and size than any college students. Another push would be for them to open another tube to a holding pond and any "smaller" males sent down the tubes or directly into the dumpster, rather than placed in the "male breeding tub". This would at least eliminate the jacks and the small two year olds without much effort. It was nice seeing people interested in the future of the fishery able to get together again. It was also great that Scott, Tom , and Dan were willing to give their time to be there and answer questions and give us information. Good luck this deer season. Phil

Thank you to all who came out and especially to the DEC staff who volunteered their time to share updates, information, and answer questions. It was a very informative event. Phil

Bump Hope to see familiar and new faces. The Hatchery looks great and it should be a fun and informative night. Sent from my Pixel 6a using Lake Ontario United mobile app

On October 19th at 7PM there will be an end of the year meeting for anyone interested in attending at the Salmon River Fish Hatchery. DEC personnel will be there to go through the egg take, hatchery updates, general health / observations of the fish handled at the hatchery. There will likely be other information presented on the bait fish trawls and any research being done or proposed for the fishery. Please spread the word and try to attend to become more informed about what is going on and to be a part of or listen to meaningful discussions / conversations.

It was a great meeting and we are grateful for Steve and Chris giving us their time. A brief summary is as follows: Hatchery is fully staffed and still working on water issues from the wells. Wild young of the year salmon sampling is the lowest in 10-15 yrs. Cormorant control is back. Lampreys being seen on fish are form the 2020 year class that was not treated. The BIG ONE: --- The new lake management is that it is a wild fishery and will be supplemented by the hatchery system which changes a lot of decisions and puts more chance into the process. Alewife survey is up to 200 sample sites. Lake Ontario Advisory Panel will remain as a permanent tool for decision making. Other discussions were about cormorant hazing, stocking techniques, Net Pen projects, Coho study, Atlantic salmon study, ........ There will be a lot more details in the ELOSTA newsletter - 3 pages. Phil