Electro Fishing in Valley Creek

[Fredrick]

Has anyone got information on the incident that happened at Valley with the electro fishing that caused a fish kill.. :-( :-( :-( :-( I went up to Valley last monday and seen at the most 6 trout . When I asked a freind about it he said the only way you see the fish on Valley is when you catch them ...

 

[Chaz]

From the PA Trout Newsletter;
"In September, members volunteered to help a professional
environmental survey company to again do
work on Valley Creek. In one stream section, electrofishing
turned up more than twice the quantity of brown
trout ever recorded. Unfortunately, something went terribly
wrong. Most of the trout did not survive. This error
in judgement, lack of understanding, lack of pre-planning
-- or whatever -- has caused a huge hole in the trout
population of Valley Creek."

I've participated in PFBC surveys, and the fish are handled and released very quickly and very few if any fish are permanently harmed and if you see even 1 fish dead afterward it's not very common. As they said something went terribly wrong.

It surprises me you found dead fish; though they probably aren't the result of the fish kill, because they wouldn't be there very long given the number of scavengers around the park.

 

[Fredrick]

Sorry That was 6 live trout

 

[Wulff-Man]

"We have good news and bad news. The good news is that the wild trout poulation has doubled on Valley Creek. The bad news is that we killed them all."

That is just terrible. When you think of all the time, effort, money and sweat that has gone into nursing along the trout populations in Valley Creek, to have an entire section wiped out by something like this is unbelievable. I hope the section wasn't very big.

 

[JackM]

Will the people responsible for the "error of judgment" or whatever be required to remediate the stream or in some manner compensate the public for the damage done? It seems that this is the usual course taken when pollution "accidents" cause fish kills-- shouldn't the same procedure apply here?

 

[RLS365]

This is just ridiculous...I just did a field study write up for my one class on this exact thing and its very easy to do with almost no harm to fish. Unbelievable they have idiots doing this. The thing that disturbs me is that after 10 minutes of being shocked the fish wake up, If you dont see them waking up wouldnt you stop doing it?

 

[NJAngler]

I know this is a rare occurence but it does raise the question of why electroshock a stream that obviously has a abundant trout population. Anyone who fishes it can figure out how many trout there are. Also, its not that hard to see trout in pools or see the YOY in the shallows or adults on/near redds during the spawning period. Its like trapping deer in a park to see how many there are per acre when its pretty obvious there are lots of them around. A stupid and totally unnecessary loss of trout.

Walk along any stream during any low water period and find a pool. Put on a pair of polarized sunglasses and take a look. Within seconds you'll know how many trout that stream holds. I mean is it really necessary to shock trout EVERY year on Cedar Run(Tioga) like it appears they do? Wow, what a "shock" there's a lot of trout. Big surprise :roll:

Mark

 

[Wulff-Man]

Anyone who fishes it can figure out how many trout there are.

Yeah, they could have asked me. From my experience on Valley Creek, I would say there are approximately 3 trout per mile. :-D

 

[ryanh]

Now Wulfman, according to NJangler's thesis any angler worth his strike putty should be able to pull 30 to 40 "cathable" fish per mile from that stream :lol:

The problem for me is that the only catchable fish are severely mentally retarded, meaning the average number of these fish per mile is on the order of 1 or 2 at best.

 

[Wulff-Man]

Ryan, I didn't mean to imply that I can actually CATCH 3 trout per mile on Valley. :-D

In fairness to NJAngler, Valley Creek is different than most, as far as the population of stealth-trout goes.

 

[dryflyguy]

Sorry to hear this sad news.
George Harvey, in his books, condemns electrofishing.
He used to work for the fish commission, and has much experience with stream surveys.
I'm sure this was, hopefully, an isolated incident,- but just thought I'd mention it

 

[Coughlin]

This is very sad news, and once the sadness subsides, I'm going to be really angry. Does anyone know which section and how long it was?
Coughlin

 

[Padraic]

Another great tragedy of this situation is that Valley Creek TU has been a stellar chapter over the years. The damage to it's awesome reputation is regrettable. Although, I hope nothing like this happens again, I also hope that the incident is viewed against the chapter's accomplishments.

 

[afishinado]

Pad – it’s actually the Valley Forge TU, the chapter that I am a member of. I just recently joined, since moving to the area, and have not contributed to their effort on Valley Creek. But, there are a lot of folks who put in a lot of hard work to preserve, improve and protect that stream. I feel bad about this setback, and hope the damage wasn’t very extensive. Any person who lays blame to the chapter or any member of the chapter is totally off base. This wild trout stream exists in this high population area almost solely through the efforts of the chapter members and leaders. The stream will repopulate. Perhaps a lesson can be learned.

 

[vcregular]

Afishinado is correct. If it was not for VFTU there would not be fishable pops of wild trout in Valley imo. They have been watching over this stream for 20 years or so, and were at the forefront of stream stewardship in a time when no one was thinking about it. This should nto be held against them.

Having said all that, this is indeed a bad deal for the wild trout. From what I gather the area in question is very far upstream, prolly farther upstream than most of us fish and the study being performed was just one of the ongoing studies done every once in a while to look at the pollution effects which led to VC becoming an unstocked stream. Because of the upstream location I think it is something the stream can come back from.

 

[Stone_Fly]

My understanding is that electro fishing didn't kill the trout, the folks doing the survey didn't refresh the water enough and the trout began to suffocate, it's just a really bad thing. The survey had to do with the PCB problems of the past, the TU Chapter was only there to watch. At least that's what I've heard.

 

[AndyP]

I hope this clears up some questions about the electroshocking mishap on Valley Creek. I am a member of VFTU and hope to give you all a better understanding. The section of stream was in the upper reaches, I won't be exact on the location, and in a 200 yard section of the stream close to 180 trout ranging in size from YOY to 15'' were sampled. This section a year ago yeilded 80+/- trout. The enviromental company that did the survey has been working on Valley for over 7 years surveying both fish and invertebrates. The great numbers increase only added to the despair to hear that the trout were killed. As of right now the incident is being looked into by the local WCO and their will be some action following this incident. Overall Valley Creek had a great year as far as my fishing experiences but we do have several large developments on the horizon that VFTU is working on to minimize their impact on the stream. This stream is really a testament to the hard work VFTU has done to not only preserve the resource but to improve it. I have been a member for about 7 or 8 years and hope to continue the battle to keep this stream alive with wild brown trout. If anyone wants to know more feel free to e-mail me.

andy

 

[RLS365]

AndyP wrote:
I hope this clears up some questions about the electroshocking mishap on Valley Creek. I am a member of VFTU and hope to give you all a better understanding. The section of stream was in the upper reaches, I won't be exact on the location, and in a 200 yard section of the stream close to 180 trout ranging in size from YOY to 15'' were sampled. This section a year ago yeilded 80+/- trout. The enviromental company that did the survey has been working on Valley for over 7 years surveying both fish and invertebrates. The great numbers increase only added to the despair to hear that the trout were killed. As of right now the incident is being looked into by the local WCO and their will be some action following this incident. Overall Valley Creek had a great year as far as my fishing experiences but we do have several large developments on the horizon that VFTU is working on to minimize their impact on the stream. This stream is really a testament to the hard work VFTU has done to not only preserve the resource but to improve it. I have been a member for about 7 or 8 years and hope to continue the battle to keep this stream alive with wild brown trout. If anyone wants to know more feel free to e-mail me.

andy

So only 180 fish died in a certain 200 yard section of the stream? And the cause of the fish deaths arent clear yet or what?

 

[AndyP]

Yes, only a 200 yard section of stream was affected. The fished died in the holding tank from lack of oxygen. When the survey team saw what was happening it was too late and hardly any fish were revived. Again, the good news was that the numbers of trout in that section had doubled from the previous year, and the bad news we all. With a little time that stream section should bounce back.

 

[Padraic]

AndyP,

In the good news/bad news story, you left out the best news. That the stream has a great chapter looking after it. You've done a lot of great work over the years. Keep at! :-D