DEC Egg Collection Update

[Tim Bromund]

Another decent day today collecting eggs I believe i heard another 30 hens were processed between 18 Mile and the Oak.

The DEC has committed to continuing at both sites through the weekend, so basically it looks like we have 3 more days to get them as many eggs as we can. We need as many people as possible to come out to both sites (Burt and Waterport) the next three days and help out. They acutally need more fishermen than other assistance, so if you can make it any time now through sunday and go try and catch some kings for the egg collection effort, it would be greatly appreciated.

Tim

[Fishtails]

Any more updates on the egg collection??

[champy1013]

From the Syracuse Post Standard:

The DEC's annual fall search for chinook salmon eggs continues.

Workers from the DEC's salmon hatchery in Altmar were over in Western New York earlier this week at 18-Mile Creek, west of Rochester. With a conservation officer nearby, the staffers solicited anglers as they landed fish, asking if they wanted their catches to be used in the egg collection effort.

The Salmon River chinook run has petered out, said Phil Hulbert, superintendent of the state's hatchery system. DEC workers have had to go elsewhere to try to achieve their goal of getting 3.8 million eggs. They now have about 1.5 million.

Responding to rumors that anglers were being encouraged to "snatch" the fish, Hulbert said it was definitely not an "anything goes" environment on 18-Mile Creek.

"If someone foul-hooked a fish, they were advised they could not keep it. . . . that they could turn it over to us, or let it go," he said.

[Tim Bromund]

I was ther at Burt saturday helping collect the donated fish for the DEC. They had much better success on friday processing 30 or so hens, and a bunch of males.

The run was slower on saturday and we only collected 6 hens and 15 or so males.

As of Saturday they were right around 2 million eggs.

They were considering one last try this morning to see if sopme more kings moved up to the dam area after saturday, but I haven't heard if that happened, and ifthey did, how it went.

If I hear anything I'll let you guys know.

Tim

[Fishtails]

Not the news I was hoping for . Sounds like some dismal times ahead on the Chinook front. Hope it's not as bad as it sounds....or we end up with a good wild hatch.

Thanks for keeping us posted Tim.

[Gill-T]

Craaaaaaaaaaaap!!!!!

[Tim Bromund]

It's not all bad. The quality of the eggs they've been getting from Burt have been excellent and at 2 million eggs, they should be able to raise enough babies to have at least SOME stocking across the lake. With the 800,000 they had 2 weeks ago, the ONLY place that would have received fish would have been the Salmon River to make sure they at least had brood stock in 4 years. They typically get 60% of the eggs to hatch and make it to release size, maybe a little bit better, so with the Salmon Rever getting it's full alottment of 600,000 there should be SOME left for other stocking sites.

Tim

[Gill-T]

Maybe we can pressure the DEC to step up and put some of our license dollars to work and purchase eggs to cover the shortfall from Michigan or west coast stocks?

[Tim Bromund]

they already tried that too, no good from other great lakes states and I'm not sure on the west coast fish, but I think the threat of introducing new diseases makes that not something they want to attempt.

Tim

[Gill-T]

Lets hope common sense prevails and the few stocking outside the Salmon River go to ports with tribs that receive a decent run of fish ie. Niagara, Oak Orchard, Genesee, Oswego, Sandy and South Sandy, Black etc. and not to ports such as Wilson with no decent trib. I am pretty sure they can treat eggs from the West Coast to make them disease free. Otherwise, three years from now.....fishing is going to suck. I can't imagine decent natural reproduction took place this year esp. with warm temps and low water in all streams. Heck, the Niagara was 70 degrees during the first week in September. No fry is going to live in that soup.

[Fishtails]

I'm sure there will be a silver lining in this somewhere. Tim...thanks for keeping us informed. I read a few pages on this topic last week on SalmonCrazy, but I had to stop.....some of those guys just get my blood boiling.

The fishing won't suck...we are just a little spoiled cause it's been so good. I had a buddy here from the west coast this past summer and from what he says, the west coast Salmon fishing has gone down hill BAD! His father runs a Salmon charter out west, he says one fish a day is average. I took him out on lake O for two days and he was floored! Our first hit of the day was a triple and he almost crapped himself....It was great!! We may have to band together and really preach C&R....I know my boat will.

Here is a pic of west cost Bruce with one of his first lake O kings from that day....the grin says it all!!

[Fish Junkie]

Anyone know if the reached their quota?

[Tim Bromund]

Here's a link to a recent DEC release on the Egg Collection. This is an Adobe pdf file

it is halfway down on the LOTSA website

http://www.lotsa.org/index2.htm

Tim

[BlueEye]

Here's a link to a recent DEC release on the Egg Collection

Here is the DEC report without the PDF hassle...

===================================

LOCAL SPORTSMEN ASSIST DEC WITH EMERGENCY SALMON EGG COLLECTION

EFFORT FOR LAKE ONTARIO SPORTFISHING

For Release: Immediate Contact: Megan Gollwitzer

Thursday, November 21, 2007 (716) 851-7201

Thanks to the assistance of local anglers and fishing groups, New York State Department

of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is pleased to report that nearly 792,000 Chinook Salmon

eggs have been collected from Eighteen Mile Creek in Niagara County. Egg collection was

initiated as an emergency effort to help achieve New York’s salmon stocking goals for Lake

Ontario.

Located in Altmar, Oswego County, DEC’s Salmon River Fish Hatchery normally

collects around 3.5 million Chinook Salmon (also known as King Salmon) eggs from the Salmon

River. The eggs are collected in the fall, and are hatched and reared to fingerling size at the

hatchery. In spring, the fingerlings are transported from the hatchery and released into Lake

Ontario’s tributaries, including Eighteen Mile Creek. This stocking program is an essential

component of the Lake Ontario Chinook Salmon sport fishery opportunities, drawing many

thousands of anglers annually to Lake Ontario and its tributaries. Surveys indicate that Lake

Ontario’s sportfishing industry generates over 50 million dollars to New York State’s economy

annually.

This year, extremely low water levels in the Salmon River during the spawning season

resulted in significantly reduced numbers of salmon moving up the river to spawn.

Consequently, there were less spawning salmon from which to collect eggs, making it impossible

for the Salmon River Hatchery to meet its standard egg collection goals. By late October, less

than one million eggs were able to be collected.

In an urgent effort to supplement the low number of eggs collected, DEC Fisheries staff

initiated egg collections from other Chinook Salmon spawning areas in addition to Salmon

River, including sections of Eighteen Mile Creek. Teaming up with local anglers and sportsmen

fishing groups, a week-long cooperative egg collection effort successfully yielded a total of

792,000 additional Chinook Salmon eggs to add to those initially collected from the Salmon

River. As a result of this effort, the Salmon River Hatchery’s total Chinook Salmon egg count is

now 1.9 million.

Participants cooperating in the egg collection effort included Region 9 DEC Fisheries

Staff and Environmental Conservation Officers, Niagara County Fish Advisory Board members,

the Niagara River Anglers Association, the Lake Ontario Trout and Salmon Association, the

Town of Newfane, and countless local anglers who graciously gave up their catches to assist.

Some assistance from anglers and staff was also provided in DEC’s Region 8 along Oak Orchard

Creek.

“DEC sincerely thanks the many anglers and sportsmen fishing groups who helped to

make this egg collection effort successful,â€Â

[Fish Junkie]

Thanks for the update.