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NEWS
Swan Lake. BEACON FILE PHOTO
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FWP Commission Approves Mandatory Walleye Kill Discovery of illegally planted sh in Swan Lake prompts unprecedented enforcement decision
BY TRISTAN SCOTT OF THE BEACON
Following the recent discovery of ille- gally introduced walleye in Swan Lake, the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commis- sion on Dec. 10 approved a rule requiring anyone who catches the nonnative sh to kill it and turn in the carcass.
The rule requires anglers on Swan Lake and the Swan River to kill any wall- eye they catch, report the catch to Mon- tana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and bring in the dead sh for examination.
Fish and Wildlife Commission Chair Dan Vermillion said the introductions are the work of criminals, and he hopes the mandatory-kill order will serve as a disincentive to anglers aiming to mount a robust walleye population in the Swan Lake system.
“There is some kind of seemingly underground but consistent e ort to put species that are not native and are not authorized in a particular water- shed by folks who are taking biology into their own hands,” Vermillion said. “These folks are in my opinion nothing more than vandals and they are disre- garding the public management of these
waterways.”
Joel Tohtz, the state’s sheries man-
agement bureau chief, said the man- datory-kill measure is unprecedented, but that turning the sh in is necessary because forensic laboratory analysis can determine how long a sh has been in the system and possibly reveal where it spawned. Those details might help nab the culprit who introduced the sh, and help biologists understand the extent of the infestation.
Prohibiting anglers from keeping the sh also serves as a disincentive, sheries managers said, an important step toward curbing the widespread problem of illegal introductions.
Mark Deleray, FWP’s regional sh- eries manager in Kalispell, estimated that nearly 600 illegal introductions have occurred in 250 bodies of waters in the state, and roughly half of those incidents were in Northwest Montana. “Bucket biologists” have cost FWP hun- dreds of thousands of dollars as the agency attempts to remove the inva- sive predators and preserve existing sh populations.
Illegal sh introductions displace
existing sh by squeezing out established populations, resulting in a loss of shing opportunity, as well as irreversible dam- age to the shery. In the case of a highly predacious sh species like walleye, or the introduction of northern pike in the Clark Fork River, the impacts on native bull trout and kokanee salmon – both of which thrive in Swan Lake – have been immense.
Bruce Farling, executive director of Montana Trout Unlimited, said his orga- nization added pressure on would-be bucket biologists when members posted a $20,000 reward for prosecution of the Swan Lake walleye, and the Montana Angler’s Forum o ered another $4,500. The Angler’s Forum includes the Mon- tana Walleyes Forever organization.
“This is one of the tools that you can use to not reward these guys for dumping sh where they shouldn’t,” Farling said of the mandatory-kill measure. “These introductions are occurring all over the place because anglers think they can go back one day and catch a particular spe- cies of sh. Well, we’ve had it. This puts a multimillion-dollar shery at risk.”
tscott@ atheadbeacon.com
www.T
www.ThreeRiversBankMontana.com
DECEMBER 16, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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