DEC egg collection

[GAMBLER]

Anyone here if the DEC got the quota for next years stockings?

[Tim Bromund]

I haven't heard officially, but I know there were a ton of both kings and cohos at the hatchery in plenty of time for their usual Columbus Day weekend egg take. I don't think we'll have a problem this year like we did in 07.

I know the Credit River had lots of fish and the Canadians had their target number of king eggs collected and fertilized well ahead of schedule as well. I believe they will be collecting coho very soon if they are not doing it already.

Tim

[GAMBLER]

Thanks Tim.

[L&M]

C & P from the Post Standard

It's been a good CNY fall for getting fish eggs

By David Figura/The Post-Standard

October 25, 2009, 12:23AM

It’s been a good fall for collecting eggs — salmon and lake trout eggs, that is.

Each fall, the state Department of Conservation Region 7 collects chinook and coho salmon eggs from the Salmon River, as well as lake trout from Cayuga Lake, according to Dan Bishop, regional fisheries manager for the region. The eggs are sanitized, fertilized and then hatched and allowed to grow at one of two state hatcheries.

The salmon fingerlings are eventually stocked in Lake Ontario tributaries, while the lake trout — the so-called Finger Lakes strain — are put into Cayuga and Owasco lakes, along with a few lakes in the western part of the state.

Bishop said workers up at the Salmon River Hatchery in Altmar began collecting chinook salmon eggs on Oct. 8 and finished by Oct. 14. The fish swim right up to the hatchery. The males and females, which die naturally after spawning, are taken in, quickly euthanized and then stripped of eggs and sperm. This year, workers reported taking in 3.34 million eggs.

Hatchery workers began collecting coho salmon eggs on Oct. 15 and finished up this past Tuesday. A total of 1.8 million eggs were taken in. In contrast to the chinooks, the cohos are release back into the river, Bishop said.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, DEC workers on Cayuga Lake took in about a half million lake trout eggs during a three-day period. They used gill nets to capture the fish, which were stripped of eggs and sperm right on the boat. The fish were then released back into the water.

The eggs get fertilized in containers right on the boat and then were taken back to the DEC-run hatchery in Bath, where they’ll be raised for about a year before their release.

[Tim Bromund]

Now why on earth would the hatchery return spawned out coho to the river? They die too, just like chinook. That just doesn't make any sense to me.

Tim

[GAMBLER]

Now why on earth would the hatchery return spawned out coho to the river? They die too, just like chinook. That just doesn't make any sense to me.

Tim

Actually Tim, returning them to the river to die feeds the organisms at the lower end of the food chain.

[Tim Bromund]

Oh I understand that, but with the number of fish that don't go to the hatchery and spawn in the river, I really don't think that's a problem, and if that's the goal, I guess my question is, why the coho only?

Tim

[GAMBLER]

Smaller fish, less of them, and less contaminants to go into the river? Your guess is as good as mine.

[kingslamon22]

imo they should just stock laketrout, steelhead, browns, atlantic salmon and walleyes in lake ontario it would be much cheaper and easier plus there is enough natural reproduction in lake o for chinook and coho that they wouldnt go anywhere anyway

thats just my opinion

[stingdave9119]

i've been told by a lot of people and several dec officers in past that not all coho's die some will actually return to the lake to run again but most do die from my understanding

[Tim Bromund]

stingdave,

Whoever told you that was wrong. All of the pacific salmon species die after spawning, that is their life cycle and th's just how it is. They must have been confusing coho with steelhead, or perhaaps atlantic salmon, which can be repeat spawners.

Tim