Poached Salmon Hazardous

Very few threatened chinook salmon have been able to make the 900-mile trek from the Pacific Ocean to central Idaho spawning areas.

The Columbia Basin Salmon Enforcement Team said Thursday a male chinook survived the trip and was snagged in a Salmon River fish trap near Stanley.

It was checked and released. But a few days later, a hatchery worker discovered the cut-off tail of a chinook at the Sawtooth weir, apparently killed by a poacher. Another employee found a head, also cut off the body, washed up at the weir the next day.

If the salmon has been eaten already, the poacher might have gotten a stomachache out of it.

Fish and Game biologist Dave Cannamela noted that all chinook salmon taken from the Sawtooth trap are anesthetized and then treated with an antibiotic before being released upstream. Neither drug is approved for human consumption when present in fish or animal flesh and may be hazardous to human health.

A distinctive injury to the head noted by the biologists who removed the fish from the trap July 29th indicated it was almost certainly the same fish. The intact adipose fin on the recovered tail portion confirmed it came from a naturally reared chinook.

In 1992, Snake River chinook were listed as threatened by the National Marine Fisheries Service. Chiefly as a result of alterations to the river migration corridor, numbers of chinook returning to Idaho waters have declined to the point that extinction looms for the run.

Cannamela urged anyone who has information about the incident to call the Citizens Against Poaching hotline, (800) 632-5999. Rewards are available for tips that lead to convictions.

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