Field Reports: Steelhead tag goes airborne

A tiny electronic tag inserted into a steelhead at Washington’s Ringold Hatchery was discovered in April in the belly of a bird killed by native hunters in southern New Zealand – almost two years later and 7,700 miles away from where the fish had been released into the Columbia River.

The tag was recovered from the stomach of a sooty shearwater.

The tag had been placed in a juvenile steelhead at the central Washington hatchery by federal fish researchers in September 2004. The fish was released into the Columbia with nearly 100,000 tagged fish by mid-April 2005.

The steelhead was last charted in May 2005 while passing through a fish bypass at Bonneville Dam.

The most likely scenario: The fish was caught and consumed by a sooty shearwater at the mouth of the Columbia. The tag remained in the bird’s stomach for 16 months until it was regurgitated to feed young chicks in 2007, including the one killed by hunters.

Tens of thousands of birds, dominated by sooty shearwaters and common murres, congregate near the mouth of the Columbia from May through September to feast on the plume of salmon and steelhead smolts migrating out to sea. The sooty shearwater breeds primarily Chile and New Zealand and migrates to the coast of Oregon and Washington for its non-breeding season.

John Ferguson, director of the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, said the case points to the interconnectedness of aquatic ecosystems at a global scale.

Columbia Basin Bulletin

WILDERNESS

Alpine Lakes fees could take a hike

The Wenatchee River Ranger District is proposing an increase in recreation permit fees for the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Enchantments Lake Basin.

Visitor fees would increase from $3 to $5 per person per day in the Enchantment permit area, which includes Snow, Colchuck, Stuart, Eightmile and Caroline lakes.

“We haven’t increased fees since 1997,” said District Ranger Vaughan Marable. “The increased revenue is needed to help provide more on-the-ground wilderness patrols and to help with rising administration costs.”

One of the most popular hiking areas in the country, the Enchantments became the Northwest’s first limited entry wilderness in 1987 to stem skyrocketing visitation. Only about 5,050 people are allowed to camp in the fragile alpine area during the June-October permit season.

Some people who were initially opposed to the permit system, are seeing the success, Marable said.

Rich Landers

FISHING

New Idaho records

Two record fish have been officially recorded in Idaho this summer:

Grass carp, 39 pounds, 41.5 inches long and 26.5 inches girth, from Snake River by Darin Patterson of Lewiston, fishing a worm on 10-pound test line, caught June 9. (World record: 80 pounds, Arkansas.)

White crappie, 3 pounds 8.8 ounces, 18 inches long and 15 inches in girth, caught July 9 in Crane Creek Reservoir by Cliff Watts of Weiser, using a red and white squid tail jig on 6-pound line. (World record: 5 pounds, 3 ounces, Mississippi.)

Rich Landers