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Speaker 1: Cool story over at the Colorado Center a couple days ago. Colorado is handing out free salmon. Here's how to get it. And there's a bunch of interesting nerdy stuff in here. The subhead of the article states annual, I hope.
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Speaker 2: I pronounce this right now, kokanee giveaway.
00:00:17
Speaker 1: That's kokanee, the kind of fish, and our guest will tell.
00:00:20
Speaker 2: Us if I'm pronouncing it wrong.
00:00:21
Speaker 1: Immediately follows the annual miraculous spawning ritual. Joining us to talk about it, John Livingston, is the Southwest Region Public Information Officer for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. I think John's been on the show with us a couple times before. So, John, thanks for making time for us. How do I pronounce this fish, and what's going on?
00:00:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, you got it. It's kokanee salmon, and this is the time of year I always kind of associate With getting in some of our raceways and squeezing some fish is what we like to say when we're collecting the eggs. um from these kokanee salmon and uh you know collecting almost 10 million of those this time of year um as we try to um you know get that species going and and keep it going all across you know more than 25 different bodies of water across the state so uh you got it thanks for having me back and always happy to chat about the kokanee salmon definitely.
00:01:15
Speaker 4: Got to explain a little bit more of why we are squeezing these salmon here john because i'm curious i mean can't they just spawn and and survive on their own i mean why is this process taking place in our.
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Speaker 3: State Yeah, so I think when people think about salmon, our minds instantly go to what you see in Alaska and the footage of these ocean-run salmon running back upstream into inland rivers and spawning as the grizzly bears are all sitting there catching them as they run up by the thousands of these rivers. Those are naturally occurring salmon, but what we have here in Colorado is the landlocked version of the sockeye salmon there, the kokanee salmon. We introduced them to our state back in the 1950s to provide anglers another diverse sport angling opportunity here. A lot of these fish are, you know, kind of just held in reservoirs where they're not able to swim upstream, up rivers and naturally spawn. Of course, some of our bodies of water, they do swim, for instance, out of Blue Mesa Reservoir, up the Gunnison River, and then up the East River, up toward our roaring Judy Hatchery, where they've been imprinted. They always swim back to where they were spawned. In the wild where they originally hatched, kind of a natural phenomenon with them. But we don't have a lot of great natural spawning opportunities for these fish here. Also, their eggs likely wouldn't be as viable in our water conditions here in Colorado. So by bringing them into our hatchery, we're able to sterilize those. fertilize them, raise those fish until they're about one inch long at our hatcheries, and then we can put them back out in the Colorado waters for anglers to enjoy and for everybody to enjoy. But we have to kind of do this spawning where we collect the eggs ourselves really to make sure that the kokanee salmon kind of persists and the program is successful in Colorado. So it's kind of not as natural as maybe what you would see kind of in Alaska and Canada and up in the Pacific Northwest. It's a little bit more of a man-made situation here in Colorado.
00:03:15
Speaker 1: So why do we need to do this? And when I think of fishing in Colorado, I think mostly of trout. Do we have other kinds of salmon here that are common to fish for?
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Speaker 2: And why is this an important thing?
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Speaker 1: Does it add a lot to the world of fishing as a sport and hobby and outdoor thing to do?
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Speaker 2: Or why do we do this?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. It's just a very passionate base of folks who love to fish for kokanee salmon. It's a different style of fishing. Kokanee salmon in reservoirs where they're at in the summer utilize a completely different part of the reservoir than other trout or other species would typically. They go pretty deep and feeding on the plankton at the bottom of our lakes. But anglers are very passionate about catching them. It's a great fish for people to be able to provide some food for their family when they're out harvesting these fish. But then there's also snagging season when people try to line up and snag them as they are running up out of some of these reservoirs and into some of our creeks and our rivers. Just a diverse fishing option for folks who are really kind of passionate about that. And again, like I said, we introduced these fish to the state back in the 1950s. really just to provide anglers a different opportunity from just going out there and catching trout every weekend. So something that anglers really enjoy, and then obviously we're able to benefit from as a state by providing that opportunity and then keeping it going by collecting these eggs, putting them back out there, and being able to kind of increase the number of bodies of water that we're able to stock these fish out into.
00:04:54
Speaker 4: John, also explain the giveaway process that you have with the salmon, because it sounds like you're able to fish them, obviously, when you're able to have the eggs and make sure that they can repopulate and they're back in our waterways. But there's also the opportunity of once you guys have the eggs and do the spawning process, people could just get them and not fish for.
00:05:13
Speaker 2: Them, correct?
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Speaker 3: Absolutely. So that's kind of the natural phenomenon with these salmon is they live to be about three or four years old until they reach a sexual maturity where they're able to spawn and have eggs. And then they naturally die off. So because these fish are naturally dying after they've been spawned, they've completely exhausted their bodies, they've completed their life cycle, we really don't like to see wildlife or animals or fish or anything go to waste in our state. So we really like to provide the opportunity. If people are interested in receiving those fish, to come to one of our spawning locations or where we're having a giveaway site and receive some of those fish. Sometimes we'll have thousands of fish to give away. Sometimes we'll just have a few hundred. So that's why we always encourage people, make sure you're calling ahead early. We have a lot of phone numbers out there available for each location where we do giveaways. And make sure there's going to be enough fish for people to receive because sometimes We do get people very excited about it. We'll have people drive down to where I am in Durango all the way from Woodland Park to receive some of these fish. It's another opportunity for people, again, to provide food for the family and for these fish to go to use instead of just being wasted after spawning.
00:06:25
Speaker 2: I'm assuming the fish are alive when you give them to the people. Is that right?
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Speaker 3: Yeah. Most often they're still alive. They are kind of rapidly dying after that process. Yeah. Um, and the way they start, you know, kind of quickly, quickly decomposing, but that's why we always do the giveaways, you know, pretty much right after we've conducted some of our spawning. So they're still fresh. People usually just throw them in their cooler and they can drive off with them and go fillet them that night and either add them to their freezer or go ahead and cook them up for dinner. Okay.
00:06:57
Speaker 2: Last quick thing.
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Speaker 1: Where can people go online to find out where and when they can go to get some of the free kokanee salmon from you guys?
00:07:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you just search CPW and kokanee salmon, it'll probably take you to this year's press release and information. We have our kokanee regulations brochure linked in there as well. But we want to remind people that we have these giveaways near Gunnison at the Orange Judy Hatchery. We'll have one this year in Dolores down at the Joe Rowell Park. We've got several at Lake Nighthorse in Durango. And then for folks who are interested in the giveaways, possibly at Granby or Shadow Mountain or Wolford Mountain Reservoir, up in the northwest part of the state. We're not sure on giveaways for those yet, but you can always call and check on availability for those. And the phone numbers for each one of those vary, so definitely check out that Kokanee Regulations Brochure on the CPW website.
00:07:47
Speaker 1: John Levingston, Southwest Region Public Information Officer for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
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Speaker 2: Always great to have you. Thanks for making time for us, John.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, any time.