Some News Briefs

BLACKFOOT GETS SOME RELIEF

Rock Snot At It Again
vigilance quashes quaggas

NPS Partners To Fight Invasive Species
whirling away in colorado

.. This week the Nature Conservancy added 4,682 acres to an easement adjacent to a 2,888 acre easement already protected in the Blackfoot River Drainage. The nearly 7,000 acre chunk of land is prime trout and wildlife habitat.
.. According to Matthew Frank in the recent
New West Article:

"The land is in the foothills southwest of Lincoln abutting the Helena National Forest, and the easement, held by Missoula-based Five Valleys Land Trust, will limit development on three and a half miles of Blackfoot River frontage and more than fourteen miles of its tributaries. It's Five Valleys Land Trust's largest easement to date."

.. This is a welcome bit of relief for one of the fastest growing areas in Montana. The effort to protect the resource is a combination of personal, private, organizational, and charitable concerns. This acquisition is part of an ongoing 89,000 acre effort in the area.

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.. Protect Your Waters notes that Rock Snot is becoming an ever-present concern for fishers, boaters, and the general public. They cite several news articles that have called attention to the problems created by this slimy organism.
.. We've posted several blurbs about about the diatom Didymosphenia geminata -DIDYMO, for short, (Rock Snot, for the rest of us.)
.. The Star Ledger, a New Jersey newspaper, has taken up the cry to inform anglers of the threat and the ways to combat Didymo.
.. Branded a "stream killer," the diatom covers river and stream bottoms with its oozing mass and deprives plants and animals of the surfaces that they need to live.

.. The Express Times, another New Jersey newspaper, has an interesting, (and somewhat gloomy,) article about the life cycle of Rock Snot. The rapid spread of the organism from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere, and its adaptation to a wide range of water conditions and temperatures suggest that its natural history may be changing. Check it out HERE.
.. In the Baltimore Sun is another note about Rock Snot threatening the Gunpowder River. Just last December we noted that the river was under assault by a local canoe club. Now the killer snot is a clear and present danger.
.. The algae bloom was noted by concerned anglers and reported to the state DNR last week. The Baltimore Sun article carries a note about the DNR providing washing stations and posting the river.
.. A second news brief by the CBS affiliate WJZ in Baltimore notes that the DNR is asking boaters to was their boats in a saline solution. Didymo can survive on a damp surface for two or more days.

.. Big Bear Lake in California came within inches of having a Quagga Mussel invasion. Via Protect You Waters, comes news that the Quagga Mussel is on the move. Quick action and insight save a near infestation at the boat ramp according to an article on the Big Bear Grizzly.com web site. The Metropolitan Water District is launching an all out public information campaign and has attendants at the boat launch facilities on the lake.

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.. In Nevada, National Park Service officials have been given the go ahead to join with local organizations to do battle with the Quagga Mussel and other invasive species according to an article in the Las Vegas ReviewJournal.com.
.. A bill passed by congress removes a legal obstacle that had prevented the federal agency from entering cooperative agreements with states, local governments, landowners and American Indian tribes to battle invaders that steal water and crowd native vegetation.
.. This could open the way for additional resources in the fight against invasive species.

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.. The Parvin Lake Research Station in Colorado, (home of the Hofer strain of Rainbow Trout, brought back to the USA from Germany a few years ago,) is inviting anglers to become research assistants in their efforts to develop trout hybrids that are resistant to Whirling Disease.
.. Many of the hybrids are larger than the native trout and can rapidly reach five pounds, (this includes the HO-HA hybrid being tested in Utah.)
.. Various hybrid strains have been tagged with small coded wires placed in the fishes' noses. Anglers are asked to visit the research station, report their experience, and if they keep fish -- have them scanned for identification. You can read more about the project in the North Forty News & Fossil Creek Current.

.. This research is is detailed in a pair of notes on the Whirling Disease Foundation web site ( #1 #2 .) The cooperation between Colorado, Montana, California, and Germany has produced some success by using fish that were originally exported from the Gunnison River to Germany in the 1800's.
.. The best news is that there may be an immune, (not just resistant strain,) present in the current research populations. Via Protect Your Waters, we've just read a note in FlyFishingDish that suggest -- nay -- says so. The sad news is that many native trout species and subspecies will be lost in the rush to sprinkle these hybrids around for the joys of angling.
.. The disappearance of any species is a blow to the ecosystem. The solution to the problem of whirling disease has the seeds of another problem that is just in its infancy.
.. We don't know how to do it, but it's time we considered a legacy fish bank. Be it sperm, or eggs, both or neither we should be thinking about it. Tissue samples, live fish repositories, and other solutions to the infant problem have been proposed.
.. Just as the Gunnison River trout went to Germany and came back with a resistance to whirling disease, so too to many of our native species may have hidden genetic talents and predispositions that are yet to be discovered. We need to think about preserving them for the next plague. What ever it may be.

photo courtesy Whirling Disease Foundation

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OLD NEWS IS GOOD NEWS

OF WORMS, WHITEFISH, WHIRLING DISEASE, & HO-HA TROUT
Colorado Follows Utah In Seeking Resistant Trout
is whirling disease on the run?

The whirling disease parasite, Myxobolus cerebralis, digests and destroys cartilage in the cranial region of infected fish. (Courtesy Montana University Water Center)

.. A recent post in the Trout Underground notes that Colorado is using the techniques pioneered by the Whirling Disease Foundation to breed a disease resistant trout. This effort is similar to the one Utah developed to aid their stocking program. Two strains of Rainbow Trout are used by Utah: the Harrison - a slow-growing semi-resistant variety, and the Hofer strain of trout. This is similar to the program in Colorado.
.. The Hofer rainbow strain has spent some time as an introduced species in Germany, and apparently had, during that time, developed a significant resistance to whirling disease. The eggs from the Hofer strain came to Utah from Colorado in 2004.
.. The resulting Rainbow has been nicknamed the HO-HA TROUT. We noted the results of this research in January. There is now a study period in Utah to see if the fish are as catchable and popular with fishers as the previous strains of Rainbows - some indigenous and some introduced.
.. One significant aspect of the Utah effort is the reliance on wild stocks of fish in the breeding program. These combined with the Hofer stocks, (which are a docile fish bred for generations as a 'food' trout,) may or may not produce a 'sport' fish. The same concerns are being noted in the Colorado project.
.. The Whirling Disease Foundation has been instrumental in these studies. The foundation has also noted that the reduced populations of Rocky Mountain Whitefish led to the understanding of the disease vector.
.. Tubifex worms are an intermediate host of the disease and research is being conducted to find resistant strains of these mud loving critters as well.
.. The diminished populations of Whitefish give concern because they are a valuable forage fish for trout and char - including the Bull Trout. The Whirling Disease Foundation has completed a pilot research program aimed at exploring this aspect of the disease and its impact. Some of us enjoy fishing for Whitefish, others demean both the fish and the sport. The species itself, however, is crucial in the understanding and combating whirling disease.
.. Several research projects are currently underway that are sponsored by the Whirling Disease Foundation. The three phase research is just now beginning to show some results. The Utah and Colorado fish breeding programs are one of the initial outcomes of these projects. This is an effort that is over a decade old and is ongoing. It has involved universities, agencies, groups, clubs, and individuals across the nation and around the world.
.. Understanding of the disease and more importantly the impact of hybridization is crucial to maintaining an healthy sport fishery, and an ecologically sensitive program. As noted by Hedrick & May, et al:

Resistance to a single disease is only one of many criteria that need to be considered when moving plants and animals from one geographic region to another. If broader ecological implications of movements are not considered, greater harm than good may result. Thus, the second phase of experimentation provides assurances that the HR trout, having developed resistance to whirling disease, have not become extremely susceptible to other microbial pathogens they may encounter. In addition, these trout will be thoroughly examined to determine if pathogens unknown in North American trout are potentially transmitted with them via eggs. Such studies are critical before further discussions on the potential applications of these fish in North America can proceed.

.. Protect Your Waters has an informative section on their web site about the disease and what we should know, and what we should do. Results are promising, but not definitive; a battle has been won, but the war will continue for quite some time.

.. A 'sidebar story' is in the offing for Yellowstone National Park. Since most of the Rainbow Trout in the Park are introduced species, will Yellowstone follow this lead? And, in light of the recent court decision that opts for morphology over genetics, will the fishers of Yellowstone pretend that . . . " if it looks like a cutt . . . . ."

Snow Flies

COLD WEATHER MIDGES
Invaders In California
more rock snot
ho-ha trout news

.. They are small. They are flies. Trout eat them. Start with size 20 and then 22 and then move on to the small sizes. In this part of the world they are called snow flies. The problem is that different people call different species and families "snow flies." (See: Snow Fly #1, Snow Fly #2.)
.. These cold-temperature critters are midges that hatch all winter. They are not famous. They are not the inspiration for many fly patterns. They are seldom recognized for what they are: mostly because fly-fisher-folk don't do much fishing in the snow.
.. Just about 15 miles from beautiful downtown West Yellowstone is a bit of water that is open to fishing all year. And . . . you can find trout rising at temperatures that are not associated with fly fishing.
.. The most common fly that the fish are eating is a "midge" which is a cold-tolerant fly - a real fly! They are small and appear on very sunny days that somehow don't feel quite as cold as they really are. The midges appear in swarms about mid day. They don't fly far and can be seen dotting the snow -- if you look closely. The trout love them.
.. However, not all cold tolerant flies are midges. There are some mayflies, and some caddis flies, and even some stone flies. These are the flies that fly fishers need to know about if they are going to fish in the cold water, and the cold weather of the greater Yellowstone area. Some of these are even mosquitoes.

.. An excellent guide to the cold weather flies is found at the University Of Minnesota's "Chironomidae Research Group" web page. These folks are busy studying primarily cold-adapted midges.
.. As noted on the site's mission statement page:

Climate change is predicted to have a greater impact in colder regions and therefore will have a large influence on the organisms that inhabit or thrive in these cold environments. Anthropogenically induced climate change will likely result in range shifts and extinctions leading to alterations in the composition and structure of insect communities. Research to reveal adaptations for survival at low temperatures in cold-adapted aquatic insects will be used to determine the influence of temperature on their large-scale geographic distributions and to model and predict the effects of climate change on these organisms.

.. The site has extensive pictures, and identification keys for many of the aquatic forms and should prove fruitful for creative fly tiers. Especially during cold evenings at the bench - and by the fire. There also is a literature review section, and the identification keys are well illustrated.
.. It's hard to tell if this is an ongoing project or just the report of a short-term research study. What every the case may be; the site is worth a visit for the "bug-inclined."

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.. From Protect Your Waters comes news about invaders in California. Zebra mussels and Quagga mussels have been found in several waters in California. The San Francisco Chronicle has a full report.
.. Rock Snot is continuing to make news in New Zealand. The New Zealand Herald reports the story in graphic fashion.
.. The promising news about the Ho-Ha trout is also reported, and gives hope for combating Whirling Disease. The cross breeding of the Hofer & Harrison Trout has proven to be one solution to the stocking program in Utah. The new trout is 10 times more resistant to whirling disease than previous strains. The Deseret News carries a story about the continuing breeding and stocking program.

Ho-Ha Photo by Kevin Rogers