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fraser hocks
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by fraser hocks » Mon Apr 23, 2018 10:56 am
TIDDLER wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2017 11:48 am
STEVE - I KNEW THAT OUR RIVERS USED TO RUN A LOT MORE SALMON BUT I HAD NO IDEA OF THE NUMBERS .
ACCORDING TO THE BELOW ARTICLE - BEFORE ROXBURGH DAM WAS BUILT( I was still in the womb) - THE CLUTHA USED TO HAVE RUNS OF 20 T0 50,000 SALMON .
IMAGINE THE FISHING DOLLARS THAT WOULD BRING TO ROXBURGH - ALEXANDRA AND SURROUNDS NOWDAYS !
I LIVE BY THAT RIVER AND ONLY A FEW LOCALS BOTHER EVEN GOING AFTER SALMON . SAD THING IS GOVERMENT KNEW THE NEED FOR PUTTING FISH CORRIDORS IN AROUND DAMS BUT THEY DIDN'T BOTHER . HOPEFULLY WE AS A COUNTRY WILL LEARN FROM THIS LACK OF FORESIGHT !
Funny you should mention that Tiddler. Iv been talking about reinstating fish access up the Clutha for a few years. There are rumors that Roxburgh dam will be decommissioning. Talk is that 2019 is the year for it. Its all back room talk and all but if it does happen then this is the first step in getting them back. Don't get me wrong the decommissioning is expected to take 10 years.
I'm a civil engineer by trade and iv investigated the possibility of installing a fish passage over Clyde dam and I believe its very feasible and not at a huge expense. Lets put it this way, the money that Contact currently spend to try to maintain the salmon fishery (under consent they have to). It wouldn't take many years worth to cover the cost of a fish passage over that dam. Most importantly it would allow fish above the dam to migrate below the dam, as well as fish passage over it.
If Contact announce that they are going to decommission the dam, then im poised to jump on this and hopefully source funding and backing.
http://mightyclutha.blogspot.com.au/201 ... D1RHFftJNs
https://www.odt.co.nz/business/concerns ... y-security
Bucking trends in fly fishing since 1970!
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Kiwioz
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by Kiwioz » Mon Apr 23, 2018 11:26 am
I don't know if the process works for salmon but the
Australian Trout Foundation is trialling Jordan Scotty incubators in which fertilised eggs are placed in plastic tray style incubators in the stream to be stocked. The trial is a result of analysis of stocked fish from hatcheries (trout) not surviving very well in the wild, where as fish hatching from the incubators in the stream have to survive as fry and mature in the wild. It will be interesting to see the results of the trials. However this does not address the obvious issue habitat degradation in general and off-shore over fishing in the case of salmon.
Cheers,
Kiwioz
Author: Transit of Fiordland
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fraser hocks
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by fraser hocks » Mon Apr 23, 2018 12:11 pm
Yea I do feel that hatcheries do serve a purpose to help a stock recover, but are not a long term fix. You only need to look to the US to see the issues around hatchery / farmed fish and how lack of genetic diversity can really stuff things. Think the movie Deliverance, only with trout
Its worth watching the documentary "Salmon Wars" to get a full appreciation of how hatchery reared fish, really aren't the way forward as a long term solution.
http://www.salmonwars.com/
Bucking trends in fly fishing since 1970!
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TIDDLER
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by TIDDLER » Tue Apr 24, 2018 12:12 pm
THAT FIRST ARTICLE FRASER PUT UP ON THE MIGHTY CLUTHA WAS EXTREMELY ENLIGHTENING IF SOMEWHAT SCARY - BUT - IT IS ALL THE MORE REASON TO GET STARTED NOW ON RESTOCKING THE CLUTHA . IF WE CAN GET SALMON TO "ACCEPT" THE RIVER AGAIN ,THEN WHEN DECOMMISSIONING DOES EVENTUATE WE WILL HAVE STOCKS THAT CAN BE MOVED WITHIN THE CLUTHA SYSTEM VIA THE JORDAN SCOTTY INCUBATORS MENTIONED BY KIWIOZ.
THE FUTURE LOOKS AT LEAST "HOPEFUL" (meanwhile if dams are a shakin' an a trembling I'm gonna wear my gummies ta bed
)
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upstream
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by upstream » Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:35 am
Interesting article about the Roxburgh Dam Fraser.
Would its decommissioning open up new spawning grounds for salmon, even without a fish ladder over the Clyde Dam?
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fraser hocks
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by fraser hocks » Thu Apr 26, 2018 12:35 pm
Yea would definitely improve things. Would give the salmon access back to more feeder streams for them to spawn in. Although the huge runs talked about in history occurred in the larger rivers that could cope with fish of such size.
Historically the best runs were up into the Hunter. That would mean a fish passage over both Clyde and Hawea dam walls. Clyde would be the major one. Once that was in place and salmon runs started, im sure that installing one at Hawea dam would occur fairy seamlessly, and would have huge backing by that point.
Bucking trends in fly fishing since 1970!
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Steve
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by Steve » Thu Apr 26, 2018 9:54 pm
The Wataki had a similar experience when the first dams went in there too, 1000s of fish unable to complete the spawning run and left with the Haka as the only main spawning stream - which now regularly dries...
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Trout United
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by Trout United » Fri May 04, 2018 11:58 am
[[/quote]
I'm a civil engineer by trade and iv investigated the possibility of installing a fish passage over Clyde dam and I believe its very feasible and not at a huge expense. Lets put it this way, the money that Contact currently spend to try to maintain the salmon fishery (under consent they have to). It wouldn't take many years worth to cover the cost of a fish passage over that dam. Most importantly it would allow fish above the dam to migrate below the dam, as well as fish passage over it.
If Contact announce that they are going to decommission the dam, then im poised to jump on this and hopefully source funding and backing.
[/quote]
Fraser
Why weren't fish passages installed on the dams when they were first built?
Allen
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fraser hocks
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by fraser hocks » Fri May 04, 2018 2:35 pm
From what I understand consent on the construction of both Roxburgh and Clyde dams said that fish passage was to be installed, but as was common in those days the contractor said it would be too expensive so they didn't do it, and no one followed them up about it. That's the story iv been told, the truth will be in there somewhere.
Bucking trends in fly fishing since 1970!
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Steve
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by Steve » Fri May 04, 2018 3:13 pm
I believe it was convenient at the time to accept any excuses for not putting them in.
Overall though the problem with the salmon fisheries is a culmination of things, have read a number of opinions about the lack of red krill out at sea, apparently the sea user to regularly turn red with the shoals of krill, it doesn't happen any more to the same extent, apparently the krill are targeted in the southern oceans, so numbers have declined as a result...though Scientists believe krill have declined by 80 per cent since the 1970s, and the most likely cause is global warming
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