QUINNAT SALMON

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 154, 19 March 1918, Page 6

QUINNAT SALMON

ATLANTIC SPECIES NOT A ' SUCCESS. i A great fuss has been made because the quinnat salmon (a Pacific species) has been caught iu New Zealand—possibly there are rivers in New Zealand where the presence of quinnat would not bo detrimental to the wonderful trout-fishing—the trout is a sporting fish in every sense of the word,, and when ho grows to salmon proportions as he does sometimes in these waters, he is a salmon in every sense of the word, except that of species. % is a sea-going trout, and there obtains his size, just as the salmon does. The Atlantic salmon has been tried ■ many times in New Zealand, with failure for every result. He grows well in fresh water, goes out to sen, and that is the end of it. Ho never returns. On the contrary, the quinnat salmon has returned) but whether lie is worthy the fatted calf that is being sacrificed in his honour, is very doubtful. If he establishes himself in any river it will be at the expense of every kind of fish. New Zealand has had unexpected good luck in the making up of a breed of trout with habits created in some way by the translations, habits that were' never expected,' for their origin was not our sea trout, but our brook trout, which have an annual inclination to go to sea and never do go there unless they are washed out in mighty snates. Tho catching with rod and' line of a' quinnat salmon in fresh water is quite exceptional, so that, as a he is not going to improve New Zealand. Iu his rivors he runs up only, spawns, and dies, and blocks the finest rivers in tho world with putrid fungusgrowing matter. Is that a good thing for the trout that have becoino tho natural fish of the river? I cannot answer that question : it has to he tried to find out, but that which is much easier to answer is that the young quinnat will require more food than the young trout, and being stronger, they will get it." So that once more- and in a verv form, hostility of the troiit and salmon interests crop nn 011 the other side of tho world.— I "lllustrated Sporting and Dramatic News."