GM salmon can breed with trout and harm ecosystem

Genetically modified salmon, the gift that keeps on giving.

Genetically modified salmon could escape into the wild with devastating consequences for the ecosystem, a new study has warned.

LINK (via: The Independent)

Alvord Cutthroat Trout, Not Extinct After All?

Someone might have to update the Alvord cutthroat trout Wiki page.

Alvord cutthroat trout were a subspecies of cutthroat trout native to the Alvord Basin of southeast Oregon. It is believed they went extinct in their pure form due to hybridization with Rainbow trout which were introduced into the Alvord basin in the 1920s.

In 2005, Dr Robert Behnke wrote an article in Trout Magazine titled Ivory-Billed Trout where he noted that there were records of Alvord cutthroat being stocked into an unknown stream of a neighboring basin. This transplant took place in 1928, prior to the introduction of rainbow trout into the Alvord Basin leaving open the possibility that another population might exist.

Now the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has devised a plan to capture some specimens and determine whether they exhibit the phenotypic features of known Alvord cutthroat specimens.

LINK (via:The Wild Life News)

Read more about the effort to establish a population of Alvord cutthroat at Kortum of Discovery.

Whirling disease researchers optimistic about Montana's trout

Whirling disease now infects about 150 streams across Montana, but researchers say they are still optimistic about the future of trout fishing in the state.

One of the most promising developments, they say, is the discovery of wild rainbow trout that are naturally resistant to whirling disease. Another is the mysterious rebound of rainbow trout in the Madison River, the first Montana river where whirling disease was discovered.

LINK (via:MSU News)

Don’t turn magnificent creatures into mythological horrors

Kyle Hill writes an open letter in Scientific American detailing his concerns about labeling Jeremy Wade's quarry flesh ripping chainsaw mauling atomic assassins monsters.

Jeremy Wade also responds to Hill's letter.

LINK

The invasion of Yellowstone Lake by Lake Trout blamed for decline in Yellowstone’s elk

Say what?

LINK (via: Wildlife News)

Char Wars

MSU scientists wade into fight against invasive lake trout in Montana's national parks.

Six miles into Glacier National Park's backcountry, a skiff plies the water of Quartz Lake. A team of fishermen traces out nets in a careful pattern along the near-shore lake bottom. Working at night under peaks newly covered with snow, the fishermen set and pull their gear, some 2,000 feet worth of gillnetting, by hand.

This is no clandestine commercial fishing venture. The fishermen are, in fact, scientists, and their nightly exertions are a National Park Service fisheries management tool in motion--an ecological line in the sand.

LINK (via:Montana State University)