· Oahe Fishermen Asked to Turn in Tagged Salmon Heads
· 2006 Big Game Harvest Projections Report Available
Oahe Fishermen Asked to Turn in Tagged Salmon Heads
PIERRE, S.D. -- Biologists with the S.D. Game, Fish and Parks Department are investigating how changes in hatchery rearing techniques might improve the survival of salmon stocked into Lake Oahe, and to do this they need the help of salmon anglers.
According to GFP Fisheries Biologist Robert Hanten of Pierre, thousands of specially-tagged Chinook salmon have been stocked in Lake Oahe over the past three years. A small coded-wire tag, only a millimeter long and the diameter of human hair, was implanted in these fish. Although invisible to the angler, tagged fish can be identified by the absence of a tiny fin on their back.
“Untagged salmon have a small fleshy-lobed fin directly in front of their tail, but this fin is removed as part of the tagging process,” Hanten said. “If anglers catch a salmon missing the adipose fin, we would like them to turn in the head of that salmon at a local bait shop, along with information on the fish’s length, weight and the date it was caught.”
Anglers who include their name and address when they turn in the head of a tagged salmon will receive a letter from GFP detailing the age of the fish and when and where it was stocked.
The tags distinguish groups of salmon that were raised using a variety of techniques at McNenny State Fish Hatchery in Spearfish.
“These differences could be as subtle as giving the salmon more room during rearing (growing fewer fish in the same amount of water), ‘exercising’ some fish more than others or providing one group of salmon with overhead cover compared to another group reared in the usual uncovered tanks," said McNenny State Fish Hatchery Biologist Mike Barnes of Spearfish. “We have seen indications that the number of salmon surviving to spawning size can be dramatically increased by giving them more space, and we just stocked tagged salmon this spring, some of which were grown in tanks with artificial hiding cover.”
Salmon stockings were reduced in the late 1990s and suspended in 2001 and 2002 during a time when prey abundance was low and predator numbers were high. As the prey base, primarily rainbow smelt, began to recover, reduced salmon stockings were reinitiated in 2003. Salmon have been stocked every year since 2003.
“We are stocking approximately one-half of the number and pounds of salmon we used to stock in the 1990s,” Hanten noted. “Until the Lake Oahe water levels increase and the volume of cold water habitat increases, reduced salmon stockings will continue to maintain a fishery and provide an egg source for future years.”
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PIERRE – South Dakota’s big game harvest projections from 2006 seasons are now available online at http://www.sdgfp.info/Wildlife/hunting/Harvest/Projections.htm.
S.D. Game, Fish and Parks Department Game Harvest Survey Coordinator Corey Huxoll said the complete report, which includes unit-specific harvest information, has been completed from survey cards which are mailed to randomly-selected hunters at the conclusion of each season. The report, which summarizes harvest information from all 2006 big game seasons, has been separated into sections to facilitate access by hunters and other interested parties.
“The complete report holds a lot of information, and was initially developed for use only by state game managers,” Huxoll said. “It has been developed on an annual basis for quite a few years, but until a few years ago, was not published on the Web. Since making the report available through the Web, we have had a marked increase in requests, indicating that hunters have found the information useful as well.”
The information in the report is available through the efforts of hunters and Game, Fish and Parks personnel. “The report certainly could not be produced without the input from literally tens of thousands of hunters,” Huxoll noted. “The report provides vital information used by our game managers to make decisions related to setting season regulations as well as evaluating past hunting seasons.”
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