Quote:
Originally Posted by BeeGuy
Are you sure this has nothing to do with introduced predatory species, increased water temperatures and huge nutrient loads? ie transformation of the environment
Nothing is the way it was. That doesn't make it unsustainable.
Can you identify watersheds where whitefish would qualify as being of conservation concern?
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The Oldman River, Bow River, Red Deer River, North Saskatchewan River and Athabasca River watersheds have all taken significant drops in population based upon "anecdotal" reports. Unfortunately when I did a larger literary review of fisheries studies in Alberta, the lowly whitefish was never studied to gain a base line. Instead the reports circled around how "overly" abundant the whitefish were and what could be done to make more room for trout.
Therefore I grant the "science" is not there to back up what I believe is true but when you see how many whitefish used to be around versus today...it is quite dramatic. If there are any 70-90 year olds on this forum...I would love to hear what you remember seeing when you were younger.
As for habitat...that is not a critical factor on whitefish given the proximity of the streams and the habitat they reside in. Their basically looking for the same habitat as any trout in which to live and grow and reproduce. Increased nutrient loading actually benefits fish populations...like in the Crow and Bow.
Water temps come and go as they always and vary year by year and watershed by watershed but the loss of whitefish numbers is common to all areas with greater loss in areas with a high fishing pressure in the Fall.
I remember fishing in a few places in my youth for whites and the banks were lined up with dozens of guys every day killing their 10 whites a day in 1998 to 5 today. I seem to recall it being 20 a day at one point.
The best predator in these streams were and still are bull trout. They are the evolved predator and when Europeans first reached the Rockies...there were photos of hundreds of 10 pound plus stringers of bull trout from rivers the size of the Elbow. These rivers don't hold near as many as their was back then while still support ample numbers of whitefish back then also.
Removal of whitefish before they spawn dramatically reduces their numbers. They are prolific spawners but still...you can't see their numbers increasing if we continue to stop them from spawning. It is so wrong it is laughable.
If there were lots more whitefish...the bull, brown, rainbow and cutt populations would improve as those tasty little young of the year is a great food source as is the 1 and 2 year old whites.