CdA fishing rules on panel’s agenda

A proposal to reduce limits for kokanee fishing in Lake Coeur d’Alene to help the fishery rebound will be considered by the Idaho Fish and Game Commission during its meeting Wednesday-Thursday in Lewiston.

The agenda also includes a review of elk habitat in the region, a progress report on a pheasant initiative, proposals to reduce the wolf population in the Lolo Zone, followed by updates on the trophy species program and an Access Yes! pilot program.

Info: (208) 799-5010.

“ Washington’s Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider 2007-2008 sportfishing rule changes and maintenance of the state’s tiger musky program during Friday and Saturday in Vancouver.

Info: (360) 902-2267.

Rich Landers

MARINE MAMMALS

Bill would target sea lions

Lethal removal of California sea lions preying on Columbia/Snake river salmon and steelhead would be allowed as soon as next spring under legislation to be introduced in Congress.

U.S. Reps. Doc Hastings and Brian Baird, a Republican and Democrat respectively from Washington, said they plan to propose an amendment to the Marine Mammal Protection Act to give Oregon, Washington and four treaty tribes the authority to kill particularly troublesome sea lions that officials say are stymieing expensive efforts to restore depleted salmon and steelhead stocks.

Until recent years, the sea lions were not considered a problem. When monitoring began at Bonneville Dam in 2002, only 31 sea lions were witnessed feasting on migrating chinook salmon as they approached the hydro project’s fish ladders.

But in 2003 and 2004 more than 100 individual sea lions were spotted at the dam, and their number was about 90 in each of the last few years. It was estimated that the marine mammals, predominately male California sea lions, ate 3.4 percent of the upriver spring chinook salmon run in 2005 and about 2.5 percent this past spring. Those runs include listed Snake River and Upper Columbia stocks.

Staff and wire reports

FISHING

Trout is sign of stream rebirth

A lone trout found in a stretch of Montana’s Silver Bow Creek this fall suggests hope as cleanup of the waterway polluted by historic mining continues.

Fisheries biologists recently observed the brook trout, about 4 1/2 inches long, in the creek near Butte. The fish was at the lower end of about a 20-mile stretch where trout were not previously observed in the fall during recent years, said Ron Spoon of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Trout had been seen there in the spring, Spoon said.

“One really tough guy evidently made it through the summer this year,” he said.

When cleanup through the federal Superfund program began in late 1999, Silver Bow Creek essentially was lifeless, and had been for decades.

“It was a dead zone — no bugs, no fish, no plants,” said Joel Chavez, of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.

Mile by mile, contractors are rebuilding the ecosystem, hauling away contaminated mine tailings and fashioning a new stream channel.

When work is done, Silver Bow Creek could become a high-quality fishing stream, experts say.

Staff and wire reports