Sad Sight: Single eggs on the river beach

[Jennie@ifish]

The river beach is just beginning to clear enough to take a walk on it, so Kilchis and I headed out to get a breath of fresh air.
I was wearing my boots, and splashing around in puddles, walking where there will be no water on the bank soon.
All around me, are little eggs with eyes on them. :depressed:
They are scattered everywhere! I felt like tossing them back in the river, but 1., I don't think that will do any good, and 2., there were just too many of them!
What an awful sight!
I am very worried now, about our run in 4 and 5 years... maybe this happens to a certain extent every year, but man there seems to be so many displaced eggs!
Jen

[steelhead_fishn]

It's possible that the egg's that do make it through the flood are from the fish that lay their egg's in the best positions. Just nature at work in my opinion.

Jeff

[Travis Moncrief Fins Feathers Furs]

Jen,

I think it does to a certain extent every year, and even worse on most years. To make it not so sad think of it this way. Those big hens that were able to get there nests deep to hold her eggs safe will make it. Thus keeping the gene pool BIG!! It will also fatten up some those big cutthroats to get them through the winter.

[MooseTurd]

The Northwest’s salmon and steelhead stocks have weathered floods and droughts for tens of thousands of years. The beauty of species diversity is that no single natural event will wipe out an entire population. That’s why it is so important that we do everything in our power to ensure abundant and diverse native runs – even if that means making sacrifices in our hatchery programs.

[Barviewrocks]

Mommie Jennie,

How about getting a hatch box positioned in your backyard and keeping us informed of the progress. If I had a plan for one, I would try my hand at making some.

[Trick]

I'm pretty sure that hatch boxes need to be sanctioned by the state these days. I know they were common place a couple decades ago but I think the ESA regulations changed all of that.

[Deleted User]

There is an ancient Chinese saying which says if you would save your rivers you must first protect your mountains.

Riverbed scouring is a normal ecological function. Intensified scouring because the watershed is in bad shape is not. Be concerned for the eggs. Be more concerned if they are an indicator of poor watershed health.

Is there a watershed conservation and monitoring plan for your river? There are many locally led watershed planning efforts going on in Oregon and other states.

[Snapset]

Sometimes it seems nature doesn't give a rip about an individual. (Like a sad -eyed egg on the beach). She does tend to take care of the population, though, as long as we don't interfere too much. I suspect that if there are enough eggs to get swept onto the beach, there are probably plenty to populate the river to its smolt carrying capacity. It is still sad for the individual.

[Fast Water]

I think a hatch box is a great idea in this situation. Don't know too much about them or if it is legal or not, but it sounds pretty cool.

If the eye is formed and showing then the eggs can easily withstand that type of handling tough I would imagine the task to be quite tedious. It would be a labor of love for sure.

:smile:

[lost_sailor]

That's why those fish lay thousands and thousands of eggs!

No worries, I think the system works.

[Flatfish]

Nature at work Jen.

Pretty sure there is a permit needed to have a hatch box. Something about the state being mad about the locals doing more than they did. Or something like that.

Mark and the ready for a nap dog.

[NEUTRON]

I'm glad it wasn't Bait of Eggs laying on the beach with his eyes poking out...what a terrible site.

[Jennie@ifish]

We are going to look into boxes. Bill has all the stuff from running the hatchery on the Necanicum for so many years.

(can you believe he kept all that STUFF?) :smile:

Anyway... I think you have to have a stream running into the river with enough current to sustain the boxes.

We are having it checked out this year to see if it qualifies.

How fun! But how could you ever fish and kill one of your babies? It might just ruin everything for me! :smile:

Jen