20 Year Fish Fight: Colorado Wildlife Experts Succeed In Saving Rainbow Trout

[Judi Lynn]

By Matt KroschelFebruary 25, 2020 at 6:00 pm

SALIDA, Colo. (CBS4) – Aquatic biologist and volunteers are teaming up to fight back against whirling disease in our Colorado rivers and streams. It first impacted Colorado’s rainbow trout in the mid-1990s and eliminated many wild populations of this popular sport fish.

The aquatic tragedy sparked a decades-long effort by Colorado Parks and Wildlife research scientists to find a remedy and re-establish populations.



(credit: Colorado Parks & Wildlife)

Since 2003, researchers have been crossing a strain of rainbow trout resistant to the disease with other strains of rainbows in the hope of developing a trout that would fend off whirling disease.

Now, after more than 20 years of study, frustration, experimentation and dogged persistence by CPW’s aquatic researchers, the tide has turned in the fight against the dreaded disease. Whirling disease-resistant rainbows are now thriving in the wild and the agency is collecting their spawn, enabling hatcheries to propagate millions of fish that will be distributed to rivers and streams throughout the state.

More:
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/02/25/colorado-rainbow-trout-whirling-disease/

[pansypoo53219]

1. i thought they were not native.