1986_11 The Daily Collegian November 1986

              I Thursday, Nov. Ugfa
Wayward white bass tell a serious fish story
By David Forster
Staff Writer
Last Spring, Bert Tribbey caught a fish
up at Pine Flat Lake and made the front
page of The Fresno Bee.
It wasn't just any fish that Tribbey
caught, though, it was a white bass which,
by law, had no business being in the lake
in the first place. But the real significance
of the catch was that it confirmed the fears
of the California State Department of
Fish and Game that the fish was ranging
out of control, with potentially disastrous
V^consaquences for the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta salmon fishery.
The white bass is not native to Cali¬
fornia; its true home is in the waterways of
the midwestern and southeastern states,
said Tribbey, a CSUF biology professor.
/But because the fish is popular among
spfirt fishers, he said, about 20 years ago
the/fish and game department brought
some white bass to California and planted
them in Lake Nacimiento, a reservoir near
San Luis Obispo. At the same time, he
said, the department took measures to
control the spread of the population by
making it illegal to plant the fish anywhere
else.
Restricting the fish to one lake stemmeo
from the fact that white bass like to cat
newly hatched baby salmon, a dietary
behavior that posed a considerablerthrcat
to the multi-million-dollar-a-year salmon
industry.
If significant numbers of the white bass
were to somehow get into the frealf water
rivers and streams in California — popular
travel routes and breeding grounds for
salmon — it has been estimated that as
much as 40 percent of thc annual salmon
catch could be wiped out, Tribbey said.
Thus, Lake Nacimiento was an ideal
location for the fish since it had no
connections with any of the state water¬
ways, x
But sometime in the early 1970s, a
fisherman who decided to bring the white
bass a little closer to home illegally
transported some of the fish to Kaweah
Lake, which has direct connections with
some of the major waterways used by the •
salmon.
When the fish and game department
was informed that the fish were on the
loose, Tribbey said, it immediately began
to take steps to not only find out where the
wayward fish had gone, but to control any
further spreading. This effort included
costly measures like putting up screens
and barriers to restrict movement through
the rivers and streams where the fish
would likely travel.
Fears that efforts to contain the move¬
ment of the fish-had only been partially
successful were heightened when a few
years ago a rumor was going acound that
white bass had been found in Pine Rat
Lake, a reservoir northeast of Fresno.
In response, the department offish and
game gave Tribbey $65,000 to conduct a
thorough sampling of the fish population
in the lake to test the validity of the rumor.
This was in October 1985, and since then
Tribbey and a few of his students have
taken weekly, late-night fishing excursions
to the lake.
"At the time we were put on contract,
not one person in 10 thought we would
find white bass up there.*' he said.
But on April 4 of this year, the rumor
became reality when Tribbey pulled in one
of his nets and found a female white bass.
Since then he has caught two more of the
fish, and continues to go up to the lake
every Thursday night.
Two primary cc   xrns of the fish and
game department, Tribbey said, are the
number offish in the reservoir and whether
they are reproducing. But the answers to
both questions are still unknown. Since
only three isolated fish, all adults, have
been discovered so far, it is difficult to
make any estimates of how many are in
the reservoir, he said.
"We've shown that they're there," he
said. "But we have no way of guessing how
many there are."
Tribbey said it is odd to find fish
travelling alone, as the white bass he
caught were. This might indicate that
there are only a few fish in the |ake, he
said, which would make reproduction
difficult, because the chances are slim that
the fish would find each other in-the large
reservoir.
DEVIANTS
Continued from page 4
The most primitive impulse is to strike
back, or an eye for an eye. It's understand¬
able,   McLeod said.
McLeod tries to demystify his students*
stereotypes by having open discussions
and guest speakers. Guest speakers in the
past have included gay clergy members,
ex-convicts, former prostitutes, drug
addicts and former or current cult members
from either the Synanon or Rajneesh
cults.
McLeod said he tries to present his
views logically and simply and that he
documents these views with research. He
said students are rarely hostile toward his
views. "Almost all students are respectful
and courteous," McLeod said.
McLeod. a citi/en of Canada, said, "I'm
a very conventional person. 1 have a
family. I drive a station wagon. I live in
Clovis. I could be lost in a crowd. If I'm
deviant. I think it's because of my ideas."
Christmas is Coming!
Craft Books
Creative Ideas for Christmas, 1986
Quilting Shortcuts
Fashion Knitting
Making Wooden Toys
Teddy Bear Craft Book
IKENNEL I
mOOKSTORl
WHO
puts the
Daily Collegian
together?
torn
Mao***-** Editor-Sarah Williams
Photo Editor-Tony Olmos
Sport* Editor-Mike Butwell
Graphics Editor-Randy Bridges
Copy Editor-David Comfort
La Voz Editor-Rudy Murrieta
Uharu Editor-Sabrina Kelly
Hye Sharzhoom Editor- Yvonne
Sahagian
Business Maaager-John Fry
Aeat. Boa. Mgr.-Ana Carretero
Advertisins Msjr.-Tricia Holt
Aaat. Photo Editor-Glenn Moore
Advertiaing Represent atives-
Chris   Johnson,   Sharon
Kuan, Regina Loh
Staff Artist-Keith Curtis
Circulation-Ismail Taib
Distribution-Ching Vang
Photographers-Kurt Hegre,
Lane Turner
Typesettinaj-Gretta DeFehr,
Amelia Di Mesio, Amelia Johnson,
Shawna Smith
News Productioa-Brenda Butler
Ad Productioa-Amy Coady, Bill
Morison, Scott Mullens
The Daily Collegian is a member
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