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An artificial flood in the Grand Canyon aimed at building sandbars to protect the endangered humpback chub has led instead to an eight-fold increase in the nonnative fish that is eating the chub -- the rainbow trout.
So now, the federal Bureau of Reclamation is proposing to again kill thousands of trout using electroshock, perhaps annually for a span of a decade, and at a cost of millions of dollars to taxpayers.
But at the same time, the bureau proposes more high-flow releases from Glen Canyon Dam, but this time paying closer attention to more than just how sandbars are built up.
"If these high-flow experiments are continued, careful monitoring is needed to resolve the uncertainty about the timing and the rainbow trout response that results," said Ted Melis, deputy chief of the U.S. Geological Survey's Grand Canyon Research and Monitoring Center in Flagstaff.
NEGATIVE PUBLICITY
One local fishing guide isn't keen on the idea of another fish removal project, but he's more worried about the negative publicity than any loss of fish in his fishing area.
"Automatically, peoples' brains go, 'Oh, they're ruining the fishery at Lees Ferry,'" said Mick Lovett, owner and operator of Marble Canyon Outfitters. read the whole story......
So now, the federal Bureau of Reclamation is proposing to again kill thousands of trout using electroshock, perhaps annually for a span of a decade, and at a cost of millions of dollars to taxpayers.
But at the same time, the bureau proposes more high-flow releases from Glen Canyon Dam, but this time paying closer attention to more than just how sandbars are built up.
"If these high-flow experiments are continued, careful monitoring is needed to resolve the uncertainty about the timing and the rainbow trout response that results," said Ted Melis, deputy chief of the U.S. Geological Survey's Grand Canyon Research and Monitoring Center in Flagstaff.
NEGATIVE PUBLICITY
One local fishing guide isn't keen on the idea of another fish removal project, but he's more worried about the negative publicity than any loss of fish in his fishing area.
"Automatically, peoples' brains go, 'Oh, they're ruining the fishery at Lees Ferry,'" said Mick Lovett, owner and operator of Marble Canyon Outfitters. read the whole story......
I fished with Marble Canyon Outfitters about five years ago when they were owned by Dave Foster, they were a great outfit back then and I suspect they still are a great outfit today. Dave told us he was planning to sell the business so that his children wouldn't have to endure a 40 mile trip to go to school every day. It seems to have taken him a few years to sell the business, but it looks like he finally got around to it.