Bull Trout - Patrick Shami

Bull Trout

Salvelinus confluentus

Characteristics

                The Bull trout, or Salvelinus confluentus, is a migratory fish, native to Northwestern North America. The bull trout is a member of the Salmonidae family; however, it has much more specific habitat requirements than other fish in the family. The Bull trout is rarely seen in waters above 59 degrees (F). Bull Trout will typically swim farther up-stream than other trout in search of the cleanest and coldest water to spawn in.

http://i.pinimg.com/originals/ba/bd/6f/babd6f56d662a49e8103f108862c88b1.jpg

                Bull trout can be easily distinguished from other trout species due to their lack of spots on the dorsal fin, olive green to bronze skin, and yellow to salmon-pink colored spots on the fish’s back. It also does not share the same forked tail as many other trout. 

www.takenobull.org/images/articles/bull-trout-diagram.jpg

  Geographic Range

                                                                      The Bull Trout is Native to Northwestern-North America. To the left, you can see the range of the Coastal Recovery Unit, put in place to help recover this threatened species. Efforts are underway primarily in the Puget sound region, however the map shows that the Bull Trout is being tracked and protected across Oregon and most of Washington.

The Puget Sound region and the Olympic Peninsula region are the only known regions to support anadromous bull trout according to the US fish and wildlife service. An anadromous species is one that spawns in freshwater but migrates to saltwater to mature. These migratory trout have been reported to grow up to 35 inches long and to weigh as much as 32 pounds!

Coastal Recovery Unit Implementation Plan for Bull Trout

https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp0/profile/speciesProfile?spcode=E065

          According to the Endangered Wildlife Coalition, bull trout have been extirpated from much of their historic range. They usually thrive in very cold waters, well vegetated flood plains, and undeveloped areas. The lack of human development allows the streams to create pools and side channels for the fish to spawn in. 

Listings

https://www.fws.gov/pacific/bulltrout/pdf/~1078458.pdf

The bull trout was first put on the endangered list as a threatened species in June of 1998. In December of 2009, the US Fish and Wildlife service began monitoring an experimental population in Flathead County Northwest Montana. Since then, there have also been populations found and monitored in other nearby states such as Oregon.

Threats to the Species

http://www.rmecinc.com/project/old-fall-river-road/

The largest threat to the bull trout is habitat degradation. Since Bull trout have such a low tolerance for changing environments, they are an excellent indicator species for the health of the waterways. When rivers and streams are reinforced, they cannot turn and bend as they naturally would, therefor eliminating many of the pools and swells that the bull trout love to live and spawn in. Humans have had an enormous effect on the waterways and on the trout by correlation. As areas become more developed and roadways expand, bull trout range and populations continue to shrink. Climate change and global warming are also expediting the extirpation of the bull trout. As ambient air temperatures rise, the stream water temp is rising as well. This, and the reduced water flowing due to drought and redirection for use in hydroelectric generators has completely cutoff the spawning grounds for many of the bull trout. Since the bull trout need to swim much farther upstream to reproduce, they are often running into roadblocks, or river-blocks, such as damns, roads, dikes, and dry spots.

http://www.riversportfishing.com/wp-content/uploads/sea-run-bulltrout-wm.jpg

                Another large and very real threat to the bull trout is recreational fishing. They are often mistaken for other similar types of fish and caught accidentally. The illegal fishing of bull trout is just adding to the population decline and could end up labeling the bull trout as an endangered species rather than just threatened.

What is being done?

Since the addition of the bull trout to the list of endangered species, efforts have been made by everyone from the federal government, state agencies, and conservation activists to power companies and local landowners. Fortunately, many of the conservation efforts put in place to save the bull trout overlap with those put in place to save salmon and steel head populations. Since “bull trout consistently migrate to the furthest accessible upstream habitats in their natal watersheds and require some of the coldest and cleanest water conditions for parts of their life cycle,” saving the habitat upstream has a direct effect on the endangered fish downstream. (US Fish)

https://www.americanrivers.org/conservation-resources/river-restoration/
 The biggest effort being made is habitat preservation, since that is what has the largest effect on the bull trout’s survival.

It is up to us...

       ...to save the bull trout. By limiting our influence on naturally occurring waterways, one would have a huge impact on the survival of the bull trout as well as other trout and salmon. One can also take action by using local governments to pressure power providers to create bypasses to their damns and hydro-electric power plants so that the trout can continue their journey up stream. The easiest thing one can do to ensure the safety of the bull trout is to research local conservation agencies, and make a donation. These agencies run on limited funds and rely heavily on the donations of concerned citizens.

References

• https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/mt/home/?cid=nrcs144p2_057914
• http://www.endangered.org/animal/bull-trout/
• https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp0/profile/speciesProfile?spcode=E065
• crag.org/clean-water/bull-trout/

Works Cited

“Bull Trout.” Crag Law Center, crag.org/clean-water/bull-trout/.

“Bull Trout.” Endangered Species Coalition, www.endangered.org/animal/bull-trout/.

Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife. “Bull Trout (Salvelinus Confluentus).” Species Profile for Bull Trout (Salvelinus Confluentus), ecos.fws.gov/ecp0/profile/speciesProfile?spcode=E065.

“Threatened and Endangered Species Bull Trout Fact Sheet.” USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Montana, www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/mt/home/?cid=nrcs144p2_057914.

US Fish and Wildlife Office, and Oregon Fish and Wildlife Office. “Coastal Recovery Unit Implementation Plan for Bull Trout.” Sept. 2015, Coastal Recovery Unit Implementation Plan for Bull Trout.