Trouts on a plane: Utah drops fish into lakes from aircraft and circa 95% survive

Authorities in the US state of Utah have released video of an extreme method they have devised to stock inaccessible lakes in its mountainous regions: a specially adapted aircraft that makes it rain fish. The fish airdrops were devised as a method for stocking remote lakes as a challenge for anglers. The fish, young brook …

[Warm Braw]

Inaccessible lakes in its mountainous regions

So what's the survival rate for the anglers they presumably have to restock using the same method?

[Tom 7]

Re: Inaccessible lakes in its mountainous regions

'Restocking' lakes that cant possibly need restocking seems fucking insane. NZ has many lakes that have been totally fucked by the introduction of alien fish and we really dont know what was lost.

I cannot understand this obsession with angling when you're just really fucking up ecosystems and torturing animals that are hungry.

[ravenviz]

Re: Inaccessible lakes in its mountainous regions

Objection to angling is a minor diversion from the utter destruction caused by the sea fishing industry.

[jdiebdhidbsusbvwbsidnsoskebid]

Re: Inaccessible lakes in its mountainous regions

"Objection to angling is a minor diversion from the utter destruction caused by the sea fishing industry."

Objection to the sea fishing industry is a minor diversion from the utter destruction caused by the human race overall.

[ravenviz]

Re: Inaccessible lakes in its mountainous regions

Totally agree, but a nihilist approach is often seen as an excuse to do nothing!

[Julz]

Re: Inaccessible lakes in its mountainous regions

Indeed do nothing and don't make more humans.

[tiggity]

Re: Inaccessible lakes in its mountainous regions

And irony overflow in the comments about goldfish & why they are a bad thing " they can grow to considerable size, compete with native species for resources"

The air dropped trout thing seems a bad idea as they will definitely disrupt the ecosystem to some extent.

[ravenviz]

Re: Inaccessible lakes in its mountainous regions

Prospective grandparents never tell their children that!

We need to change.

[ravenviz]

Re: Inaccessible lakes in its mountainous regions

That’s not a minor diversion, it’s a direct cause and effect!

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Inaccessible lakes in its mountainous regions

"So what's the survival rate for the anglers they presumably have to restock using the same method?"

It did cross my mind to wonder what is going on that a lake that is so inaccessible needs to be restocked in this way. There can't be all that many anglers hiking for miles through wilderness just for a quiet afternoons fishing.

I'm just trying to imagine the outrage in the press if this was tried anywhere in the UK!

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: Inaccessible lakes in its mountainous regions

There can't be all that many anglers hiking for miles through wilderness just for a quiet afternoons fishing.

This is the Rockies. I've never hiked to any significant lake or river in the Rockies without encountering several people fishing.

Granddaughter Major and I hiked to Williams Lake in New Mexico a few weeks ago. That's four miles from the trailhead, so an 8-mile walk all around, at ~10000 feet above sea level. And the North American Monsoon is more robust this year than predicted, so there's a good chance of thunderstorms most afternoons. Were there anglers? There certainly were.

Same for the upper Rio Grande, though most of the ones there were at places where you can drive most of the way. But there's a fishing trail that runs several miles alongside the river in the gorge, and most days you'll spot people wandering up and down it with fishing rods.

Personally I've never seen the attraction, but there seem to be plenty who do.

[JohnMurray]

Re: Inaccessible lakes in its mountainous regions

Wildlife Officials Restock Lake By Dropping Thousands Of Fishermen From Plane https://www.theonion.com/wildlife-officials-restock-lake-by-dropping-thousands-o-1847291583

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Only trout ?

Idaho did this with beavers - although they were given parachutes

Utah does have a program to re-introduce wolves - doesn't say if they are planning to catapult them

[spold]

Re: Only trout ?

Piranhas perhaps? A ready supply of fishermen.

[Zarno]

Re: Only trout ?

Catapults only pair well with Coyotes, or at least that's what I've been lead to believe by the fine folks at ACME.

Icon because somehow, someway, it all ends in explosions.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Only trout ?

"Catapults only pair well with Coyotes, [...]"

Except when combined with an anvil.

[RuffianXion]

Re: Only trout ?

Moreso boulders - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmCL1a31tak One of the funniest cartoons I ever watched as a child.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Only trout ?

I've seen cattle being catapulted over castle walls by the French in a documentary about the Knights of the round table.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Only trout ?

fetchez la vache

[Throatwarbler Mangrove]

Re: Only trout ?

To say nothing of the US Army's highly trained parachute badger division.

[Pen-y-gors]

Nice idea

Take a tank full of fish, drop them from the air into a lake where they aren't native, in a way that will be so shocking the 5% will die, just so 'anglers' can trek up into the hills to catch them. Doesn't sound really ethical?

Perhaps just keep them in a tank and invite fishermen to come and hit them with clubs?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Nice idea

The restocking has apparently being going on for decades. No doubt some flying raptors have thrived on the regular hand-out.

They ought to include some pike to make the fishing more exciting.

[Tom 7]

Re: Nice idea

The thing about angling is its convincing yourself that getting a fish to eat and so hook itself is somehow clever and makes you a big man. When in reality the angling equipment industry got you to take the bait.

I remember having a chat with a mate who was a member of a fishing lake consortium and asked him why he wasn't fishing - he said they were restocking their lake. They did catch and release and claimed they didnt harm the fish and yet on a lake that size you could take around 2 tons of carp a year without any feed and they used a small fortune in ground bait and still had to restock!

[mark l 2]

Seems a bit of waste of resources just to air drop fish ever year so that anglers can catch them. Isn't there some native species that would actually breed in the lakes so they don't have to keep restocking every year?

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Yes but there would only be a few actual fish.

People aren't going to go fishing when there are only 6 fish in the lake

There needs to be lots of fish to attract lots of fisherpersons - to feed the bears

[hoola]

There probably is but the anglers don't want to catch it because it is:

Too easy

Too difficult

Cannot be eaten

Not "sporting" enough.

[ThatOne]

> Isn't there some native species

I guess you can't brag about having caught some inbred hillbilly fish nobody has heard of - It has to be one of the "noble" ones, preferably a trout, preferably a huge one.

[A. Coatsworth]

Nature... uhhh... finds a way

>>[Fish] are not native to the lakes and do not breed

100% effective, guv'mint guarantee! I can't see how this could go wrong

[Tom 7]

Re: Nature... uhhh... finds a way

They do not breed because they grow so big they've eaten even their potential mates!

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: Nature... uhhh... finds a way

Fortunately, they haven't figured out how to operate doorknobs.

[Pirate Dave]

Well

you gotta think that a sizeable proportion of the 95% that survive still winds up as food for the fish in the lakes that ARE native and breeding there. It's like manna from heaven for those guys.

[ravenviz]

I’ve often thought the same could be done with trees, replanting from the air.

A ‘ shuttlecock’ type planting, of course after ground surveys, with tactical drops

[Mark 85]

They have done that out here on the US west coast areas and others. Drop the seeds in the spring many times over areas that have burned.

[Anonymous Coward]

Standards bureau error...

"since a combined load of fish and water would weigh hundreds of kilos."

Just WTF is hundreds of kilos? This really should be described in terms of aerial fish dumps, this obviously being one aerial fish dump. For the really keen angler we would have kilo and mega aerial fish dumps, etc.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Leisure time

With the amount of time some anglers seem to spend on their sport, it's a wonder that they manage to breed

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Leisure time

They don't breed, they spawn.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Leisure time

And they always go back to that "special" spot where they caught "the big one"[*]

*There's medication for that these days.

[yetanotheraoc]

There should be an app for that

"Even today, fish are transported to small lakes and streams in adapted backpacks by dedicated wildlife workers on foot, on horses, on motorbikes and on four-wheelers in a practice known as extreme fish stocking."

Pokefish Go.

[Greybeard_ITGuy]

And so we are doing this.. why?

"are not native to the lakes and do not breed"

Which explains why the fish should not be restocked in that area.

[Anonymous Coward]

wondering

Have the Utah flight crews ever heard one of the fish exclaim "oh no, not again"?

[OssianScotland]

Re: wondering

No, they are fish, not petunias!

Icon because "Ford, you are rapidly turning into a penguin..."

[Kane]

Re: wondering

'Icon because "Ford, you are rapidly turning into a penguin..."'

That is not the point. Quack. The point is I am now a perfectly safe penguin. Quack. And my colleague here is rapidly running out of limbs.

[SImon Hobson]

Re: wondering

I was wondering if any of them were thinking on the way down ... "so big and round ... I'll call it ground ... I wonder if it'll be friends with me ?"

[Lucy in the Sky (with Diamonds)]

Where is the romance?

Maybe, some candles, Russian Caviar, a bit of Foie Gras, French Champagne, the odd oyster, a bit of romantic music, and they will re-discover the lost art of breeding.

[DrXym]

Wait...

... if the trout are not native to the lakes and can't even breed there, then what's the point of this at all? Find fish that *are* native to the lake and replenish those if there is a reason to, e.g. they have become endangered by all the trout being stuffed in their habitat.

As for goldfish, they're basically carp. They've probably lost some evolutionary edge by being bright orange and bred for captivity, but if people keep releasing them into lakes then of course they're going to establish themselves. Probably easier to clear out than some invasive species though.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Wait...

As for goldfish, they're basically carp. They've probably lost some evolutionary edge by being bright orange and bred for captivity, but if people keep releasing them into lakes then of course they're going to establish themselves. Probably easier to clear out than some invasive species though.

My only question: Are they edible?

[tiggity]

Re: Wait...

Yes they are edible.

Carp very popular in some areas e.g. Poland

[Allan George Dyer]

Please explain...

Why is it called the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources? Wouldn't Utah Division of Domesticated Resources be more accurate? Or Utah Drops Whirlwind Repast, if you want to keep the initials.

[Anonymous Coward]

CARPet Bombing?

Not as precise or impressive as the famous 'salmon cannon'.

[Denarius]

fish falls

happened in northern Tanami Desert around 1975. Probably when thunderstorm willywilly sucked up a school of perch from creek or pool in Victoria River at end of Dry. Dry creek one evening, sound of big train next morning despite blue sky. Creek meters deep, stocked with small fish. Some of those preWet storms were and are spectacular.

[adam 40]

Not efishient (I said it for the halibut)

That lhake isn't a brill plaice to drop trout. I would rather see bass at tur bottom.

Besides, if Cod wanted fish to fly, He'd have given them wings!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not efishient (I said it for the halibut)

"He'd have given them wings!"

Flying fish are powered gliders. They use their tail to beat the water occasionally to maintain the required forward thrust to produce lift over their fins shaped as aerofoils..

[hnwombat]

"As god is my witness, I thought trout could fly!"

[Ken G]

Religous option?

Could they target a Christian revivalist meeting instead of a lake, give them the full Old Testament miracle/plague treatment?

[Ken Shabby]

Re: Religous option?

Just add bread rolls

[ThatOne]

Too big for aquariums?

I'm surprised to hear goldfish can get that big, I always thought the size you commonly see was their normal size. How can people keep them in a normal-sized aquarium if they tend to grow that big? Do you throw them into the frying pan beyond a given size and restock with small ones?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Too big for aquariums?

Pet ones die of boredom going round in circles.

ICL Stevenage had a small decorative indoor pool in the reception area. Over many years one of the carp grew to a good size.

[ThatOne]

Re: Too big for aquariums?

> Over many years one of the carp grew to a good size.

Nah, that's because they used to throw the unwanted visitors in that pond...

[Tom 7]

Re: Too big for aquariums?

Evolution has taught many animals not to get too big. Fish often limit their size to their environment. Keep them in one of the traditional fish bowls and they'll get to maybe 4" and that'll be about it. After 5 years of being 4" and going round in circles drop them in a large pond and they'll get pretty large. I've seen one that looked about 30lb though it may have been a cross breed with a 'normal' carp,

[ThatOne]

Re: Too big for aquariums?

> drop them in a large pond and they'll get pretty large

I think that's what happened to me too. My pond was too large...

[You aint sin me, roit]

Extreme stocking?

Fishnets, Shirley?

[Liam Proven]

Ah ... ! What's happening? they thought.

Er, excuse me, who am I?

Hello?

Why am I here? What's my purpose in life?

What do I mean by who am I?

Calm down, get a grip now ... oh! this is an interesting

sensation, what is it? It's a sort of ... yawning, tingling

sensation in my ... my ... well I suppose I'd better start

finding names for things if I want to make any headway in what

for the sake of what I shall call an argument I shall call the

world, so let's call it my stomach.

Good. Ooooh, it's getting quite strong. And hey, what's about

this whistling roaring sound going past what I'm suddenly going

to call my head? Perhaps I can call that ... wind! Is that a good

name? It'll do ... perhaps I can find a better name for it later

when I've found out what it's for. It must be something very

important because there certainly seems to be a hell of a lot of

it. Hey! What's this thing? This ... let's call it a tail - yeah,

tail. Hey! I can can really thrash it about pretty good can't I?

Wow! Wow! That feels great! Doesn't seem to achieve very much but

I'll probably find out what it's for later on.

[Gort99]

Mr Pool?

"Wade Wilson, a Wildlife Resources biologist". I didn't know Deadpool was an environmentalist.