MENACE TO TROUT.

Wairarapa Age, 2 February 1937, Page 4

MENACE TO TROUT.

PRESENCE OF SALMON SAID TO BE DETRIMENTAL. COMPETITION FOR FOOD. “There is not the slightest doubt that the presence of quinnat salmon in the rivers is detrimental to the interests of trout. We do not want salmon in the Opihi River, and we tried one year to keep them out by means of a trap; but unfortunately it was not satisfactory,” said the ranger to the South Canterbzury Acclimatisation Society, Mr. F. W. Pellett, recently. "It is not the parent fish which causes the damage,” he said, “though the salmon is voracious, and there is little doubt that it would attack a trout that got in its path. It is a well-known fact, however, that a quinnat salmon yearling, which is much bigger than the brown trout yearling, will outstrip the trout in fossicking for food, and, more than this, it will eat two or three times as much. That is where the real damage lies and where the salmon is a. menace, particularly in a river such as the Opihi, which is partly rain-fed; ’' From the time of hatching Mr. Pellett said, the salmon remained in the river for 12 months. When they migrated, another batch would be growing in the river and trout had no hope of competing favourably'for food. It was a case of the survival of the fittest and it was extremely difficult, under the circumstances, raise brown trout to a good weight.