Aerial fish stocking

The process of using aircraft usually a (airplane or helicopter) to stock fish in a lake or some other body of water.


Originally started by anglers that wanted to start sport fisheries Eventually states (through the respective state's department of fish and game) wanted to control the fish populations and with that came more high technology fish stocking methods especialy for more remote and high altitude lakes

Enter aerial fish stocking : While most of the stocking is done with fixed wing aircraft, helicopters are also used to a lesser extent. Aircraft commonly used for aerial fish stocking are the 2 engine Otter or the four-engine civilian C-130 Hercules.

Enter aerial fish stocking: the conflict :Because the minimum airspeed for these aircraft is 180 knots fish often miss the lake. The result is ten to thirty pounds of young fish scattered in trees and on the ground. organisations like the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society are concerned about the impact of aerial fish-stocking activities on the experience of wilderness visitor. This is why the more expensive and disruptive helicopter alternative is viable.

A small wind sock colorfully decorated as a fish, which can be attached to the antenna (aerial) of an automobile. While quite cute, the force exerted on the aerial at high speeds can lead to bending. These are the largest known vector of van aerial disease.

Trout stocking for recreational fishing began in the 19th century in California (lakes above 1800 meters did not have native populations of trout), mainly using non-native brook trout and brown trout. In 1948, the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG), in order to reach more backcountry lakes in the Cascades and Sierra Nevada, started dropping the fingerlings out of airplanes to stock the lakes.

The Department now raises and plants over 57 million fish annually, including approximately 16 million trout, to restock the existing populations of both native and non-native trout. (Judging by fish license purchases, there are about 2.4 million people in California who fish) About 8 million of the trout are grown to one-half pound each, the rest are released as fingerlings. Some are released and planted by truck, or by hand, and the rest are thrown out of planes travelling at 200 miles per hour.

The DFG Web site has no statistics on either the accuracy of their aerial trout dumps nor the survival rate of these little fish.

"We certainly do not wish to cause widespread panic, but we are hereby warning the public to be on the lookout for falling trout.

We base this warning on an alarming article from the Bangor Daily News, sent in by alert reader Jane Heart, headlined TORPEDO APPROACH USED TO STOCK LAKES WITH TROUT. According to the article, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries is restocking lakes by dropping trout from airplanes. A hatchery official notes that the trout, which weigh about a pound each, drop from 100 to 150 feet "like hundreds of little torpedoes."

This article should cause extreme concern on the part of anyone who is familiar with gravity, which was discovered in 1864 by Sir Isaac Newton, who was sitting under a tree when an apple landed on his head, killing him instantly. A one-pound trout would be even worse. According to our calculations, if you dropped the trout from 150 feet, it would reach a speed of . . . let's see, 150 feet times 32 feet per second, at two pints to the liter, minus the radius of the hypotenuse, comes to . . . a *high rate of speed*. Anybody who has ever seen a photograph showing the kind of damage that a trout traveling that fast can inflict on the human skull knows that such photographs are very valuable. I paid $20 for mine. - Dave Barry

Sources:
Dave Barry, Miami Herald, Dec 9, 1990. http://www.armory.com/~peterr/humor/Dave_Barry/901208-trout California Department of Fish and Game, http://www.dfg.ca.gov
Cosmo Garvin, "Flying Fish Devour Frogs," http://www.newsreview.com/issues/Sacto/2001-01-18/frontline.asp
Roland A. Knapp, "Non-Native Trout in Natural Lakes of the Sierra Nevada: An Analysis of Their Distribution and Impacts on Native Aquatic Biota , Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project: Final report to Congress, vol. III, Assessments and scientific basis for management options," http://www.highsierrahikers.org/issue_fish_main.html

Aerial fish stocking is a method of seafood storage developed in the late nineteenth century by Sir Edward Richard Henry on a late-night LSD trip in the forest with wolves. This was just before his Grand Epiphany, after which he spent five years staring at his fingertips. Aerial fish stocking is not to be confused with hanging food from trees when camping, a practice that began as a tribute to The Worst Attempt at Bear Baiting Ever.

The main difference between aerial fish stocking and conventional fish storage lies in elevation. Where conventional fish stocking takes place chiefly at ground level, aerial fish stocking is done high up in the air. The idea gained popularity with the increasing urbanization of the UK (and the rest of the free world) as warehouse real-estate became increasingly scarce. The invention of floating unicorn palaces in 1907 also contributed greatly to its growing utilization around the world.

Aerial fish stocking has not been used since 1991 due to concerns put forth by the FDA and several private organizations.