In the midst of all that other stuff in the news of late, you might have missed a story making the rounds in Montana about “decreased numbers of large trout” in several Madison river sections. For a sample article consider this one in the Billings Gazette – that’s their image / screen shot below – which really wants you to believe the issue is primarily related to warming waters.
You can read the report itself here (screen shot of some of the data tables above), and while recruitment is indeed down in several sections YOY, the critical issue of why remains to be determined, as does a number of other things that good science principles require, for example, a critical look at how noisy the recruitment numbers are YOY over a longer period of time, is this recruitment variation a major anomaly or something that we see repeatedly on other river systems, what other possible explanations might there be – maybe something as obvious as the years of temperature disregulation caused by the Hebgen Dam kerfuffle (ask Kelly Gallup or Joe Moore about this one), and why recruitment is above average just upstream at Hebgen?
There will no doubt be those who suggest the data supports resurrecting the discussion of saving the Madison from anglers loving it to death; whenever the Fish and Wildlife Commission meetings on the Madison are resumed stay tuned for more fireworks. Would be kinda nice to hear something from those noble protectors of the Madison – the Madison River Foundation – as well…
