CKST: Netting needed for macks

POLSON — Last week, fisheries experts for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes defended their proposal to net lake trout in Flathead Lake, saying that a new management approach is necessary to help curb the proliferation of the invasive fish and to boost the  critically low numbers of native species such as bull trout and cutthroat trout. The proposed measure, which is detailed in a draft environmental impact statement released last month, would supplement the efforts of anglers, who pull approximately 70,000 lake trout from the lake annually.

The Tribes are opting for a new approach after more than a decade of pouring money into lake trout management strategies — such as the cash-incentivized Mack Days fishing tournaments — that have not been able to move the needle on the imbalanced trout demographics in the lake.

“We are spending a lot of money and not making a lot of progress,” said CSKT fisheries biologist Barry Hansen.

“As scientists and as managers, we realize what we’re doing isn’t working. We are examing proposed and objective measures (to increase lake trout harvest),” he added.

CSKT fisheries officials have tentatively placed four management strategies on the table. One option is to take no new action, while other proposed alternatives call for prospective 25 percent, 50 percent and 75 percent reductions in lake trout levels, respectively. The draft EIS proposes gillnetting fish as a way to achieve the lake trout reduction goals.

Some vocally oppose the possibility of netting, particularly commercial fishing guides whose livelihood is focused on the abundance of lake trout. Others, still, are concerned that the method will kill fish indiscriminately, including native trout species that the initiative intends to protect.

Hansen, meanwhile, argues that alternatives haven’t worked over the last 13 years.

“It’s not a ‘sky is falling’ scenario,” said Hansen, downplaying the dangers of gillnetting.

“There are very practical ways to avoid bull trout,” Hansen continued, saying that the protected species doesn’t occupy very deep water and tends to stay close to shore. Thus, targeting gillnetting efforts on specific parts of the lake could help to minimize the impact on native trout species.

Hansen says that Lake Pend Oreille in northern Idaho is the best example of a gillnetting success story, where the method has been in use to combat lake trout since 2003. Wyoming’s Yellowstone Lake has also been “doing this for quite some time” to support their native population of cutthroat trout, added Hansen.

Some people argue that the fight against lake trout in Flathead Lake is futile and misdirected, but Hansen said there are many important reasons to protect bull trout, which are Montana’s official state fish.

“They are our natural heritage. We consider it our obligation to preserve them. They’re important because they’re a popular sport fish and they support economic activity throughout the entire watershed.”

At the same time, Hansen acknowledges that it is an uphill battle, especially when lake trout can be seen as a “symptom” of the larger issue of invasive mysis shrimp forever altering the lake’s ecology by becoming the basis of the food chain.

“It’s never over. It’s a perpetual effort,” said Hansen. “We’re not out to eradicate - we think that’s infeasible and too expensive. We’re just improving the balance.”

Regardless of which approach is eventually adopted, implementation is still a ways off on the horizon with several procedural hurdles remaining. The first of those is the ongoing public comment period, which extends until Aug. 5.

Copies of the draft EIS currently being circulated by tribal officials are available online at mackdays.com.