ACCLIMATISATION

Southland Times, Issue 19651, 9 September 1925, Page 12

ACCLIMATISATION

SALMON AND TROUT.

(By

“Red Spinner.”)

In the Southland Times of March 30, 1925, there was an article headed “Blind Acclimatisation,” referring to the advisability, or otherwise, of stocking suitable Southland rivers with Atlantic salmon, which had been successfully established in the Waiau. Reference was made to an article in the New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology by Mr J. Phillips, F.L.S., F.R.G.S., on “The Scale of Fishes as an Index to their Life History.” Mr Phillips stated, inter aha: “In a letter I received from the secretary of the Salmon and Trout Association of the United Kingdom, I was informed, that the experience of that association had been, that trout will not thrive in rivers up which Atlantic salmon run.” . . . This statement is not without its significance for New Zealand. Blind acclimatisation is the only term to describe the present rush to introduce fry of Atlantic salmon, into every large river already stocked with trout. The balance of Nature, the relation of plankton to animal fife, must be maintained, irreparable harm can be the only outcome of neglect of the study of limnology in New Zealand.” This was so much at variance with my pre-conceived ideas on this subject, more especially as it was common knowledge that both good salmon and trout fishing was to be had both in Canadian and British waters, that I forwarded the article in toto to the editor of the Fishing Gazette, asking him to comment on it, as the information would be of value to our society. In the F.G. of July 25, the editor thus comments: “The statement accredited to the secretary of the Salmon and Trout Association is so wide off the mark, that I asked Mr F. G. Richmond if he would confirm, or correct it, before it was published in the Fishing Gazette. He writes as follows: Dear Marston, —The enclosed cutting which I return apparently refers to a passage in a letter written by me to Mr Phillips, on July 2, 1924, which is as follows (referring to the possible reaction of salmon upon trout in New Zealand) : “Salmon, in their early life undoubtedly compete with trout for food. An observer of considerable experience has told me he has seen this happen again and again in Scottish rivers—when salmon fishing has improved, and trout fishing correspondingly fallen off—and I remember being asked by another fisherman why it was, that when salmon improved, sea trout deteriorated?” My meaning was, that if. salmon increase, and you get a lot more of them, you will get fewer trout. I should not be prepared to accept the extension of this principle, to that given in the cutting, that “trout will not thrive in rivers in which Atlantic salmon run,” or the statement of my observer (who is a member of the Salmon and Trout Association) as representing the collective experience of that association in confirmation of this extension.—Yours sincerely, F. G. RICHMOND. (Of course it is obvious that salmon fry and smolts must eat a good deal of the food which otherwise the trout would get, but in the early part of last century you found trout in large numbers in all the salmon rivers.—Editor.)