Not sure why this is a good idea

[BearLakeFishGuy]

Thanks Scott, I guess the Stanley thing makes sense in theory. How sure is the DWR that these old fish that have only known Bear Lake for 30 years will even survive the 300 mile trip and adapt to the new eco system. Sure seems like it would have made sense to do a trial run with like ten fish with GPS trackers to see if they die. There seems to be enough questions this should have been a RAC agenda item or at least a town hall meeting.

I have a final question:  I’m not a big sky is falling guy. I’m the one telling everyone Obama and Biden aren’t taking your guns so stop buying all the ammo. But, I fear that this “study” will lead to restrictions on Lake Trout, under the guise of protecting endemic species. So, can you guarantee that the stocking numbers of macs will remain the same or more, the angling limits won’t be relaxed or god forbid a catch and kill order/lake trout eradication won’t take place (ie: Yellowstone Lake)?  Can you confirm that will be the case?  Chris, feel free to respond if you can. I would be done with this issue if you can. Whatever that’s worth, probably not much tho.

I'd like to respond to this by saying that there are no plans to change the current stocking of lake trout and/or cutthroat trout in Bear Lake with the results of this study.  Nor would there be a catch/kill regulation implemented on lake trout.  I can tell you that the stocking of both species IS dependent upon the numbers of Bonneville cisco and Bear Lake sculpin in Bear Lake since both cisco and sculpin are the main diets items of both cutthroat trout and lake trout (stocking of predators, either cutthroat trout and/or lake trout is dictated by the bi-state Bear Lake Fisheries Management plan objectives for each species). In fact, UDWR has made several adjustments to cutthroat trout and lake trout stocking numbers during the last 40 years.  Both cisco and sculpin numbers are monitored closely by both the UDWR and IDFG and the best "tool" the fisheries managers have to protect the endemic forage fish is to adjust stocking numbers to balance the stocked predators with the endemic prey.  One thing for sure is that fish populations are always in a state of flux due to many factors (some we can control, such as stocking numbers and fishing regulations; and others we can't control, such as drought, lake levels, temperatures, etc.) and being able to make adjustments allows us to do the best job we can to manage a fishery by using the best data we have available.