Water Fowl Dispersing Invasive Organisms?

[MOPanfisher]

FYI do NOT type "leech porn" into a Google search to see if you can find a photo for wrench, just dont.

[fishinwrench]

35 minutes ago, MOPanfisher said:

FYI do NOT type "leech porn" into a Google search to see if you can find a photo for wrench, just dont.

Good God !    That was an eye opener!  Why when someone tells me NOT to do something do I immediately do it? 🤔

There are some crazy mofo's out there.....and they walk among us.

I still love leeches, but....not...like.....that kinda love. 😖

[tjm]

So, the felt wader stuff; I haven't read all the things about how that supposedly works and I should/shall, but in the mean time if the bad things are sticking to felt why aren't they sticking to clothing and sneakers of wet-waders?

As to the trout in high remote lakes, many of the western trout waters had no trout before the stocking programs. About 1960 I asked how the trout got in a glacial lake on an Idaho mountain top and learned that fry were dropped from light aircraft, similar to crop dusting or fire fighting. People that told me this claimed to have been involved in such stockings. Also heard stories of pack horsing fry/fingerlings into remote areas. Been a while, but iirc, only the bull trout and cuts were native in the Rockies and Great basin.

In that time and place I never heard the term "Brown trout", they were normally called "German trout" just as the carp was called "German Carp".  Some place I met a guy that called them "von Behrs" or  a similar German name. 

[skeeter]

I 

[MoCarp]

2 hours ago, skeeter said:

If they are going to point fingers and spend money on researching a natural and uncontrollable invasive organism transport like waterfowl,  they had better start thinking about and looking at Wake/Surf Boats as a man-made transportation system.  These boats are able to pump up to 1800 lbs. of ballast (lake water) into on-board tanks and bladders so they can throw the dratted wakes everyone using the Lake has to put up with. 

Common sense tells us there is no way those on-board tanks and bladders completely dry out enough between uses on different Lakes to kill-off whatever might be in that pumped-in ballast. 

some remote bodies of water have some how become "inoculated" with critters..I don't think someone is dumping a bucket in uncle zebs 1/10a farm pond thats 1 mile hike in any direction.....something as simple as sticking to the belly of a duck.....not going to stop that

[tjm]

I can imagine that some things could live in the wet parts of a bird for a time.  Hard to imagine that any thing could survive a fowls digestive system.

Humans are much more likely means of transport, via boat, bait bucket or wet gear.

I have heard of guys toting a bucket of fish quite a walk to "stock" a pond, whatever was in the water the fish came from is also stocked, but simply carrying in bait such as wild crayfish or shiners and dumping the leftovers is enough.

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

All it takes is 1 introduction of foreign material to make a difference.   Whether it be natural, accidental or otherwise.  Could it be waterfowl?  Sure.  Could it be human? Sure.  Could it be deer or other mammals?  Sure.  It could be all of these things.   But at the same time,  it doesn't hurt to be diligent stewards.  

[MoCarp]

I have some links to studies done in an eastern european country where they feed ducks fish eggs and some are viable after defecation....I am sure Ducks Unlimited isn't keen on any studies to that end...not that blasting every duck to keep zebra mussels at bay isn't realistic...it has happened in the past for different goals.... but if some sky is falling "group" on invasives could make a industry from water fowl annihilation you can count on it happening

Quote

During the 1800s and lasting into the 1930s, the killing of fish-eating birds was seen as a fish conservation measure. Bounties were given by local government entities, and upon presenting evidence of offending dead birds, game officers paid the bounties.^[52] A report by a hunter states, "There was a bounty paid on cranes and heron in 1895. Two men could make as high as $66 a day. Wading into the rookeries with their pants off they would crack the heron over the head. When the bounty was paid on pelican we would use a fish float tide to a wad of rushes. Gulls were also caught. There has been 10,000 slaughtered. At the Big Channel gidls have been shot and there are four or five hundred pelicans which have been shot. In 1928 I killed 1,240 mudhens [coot]. We would eat the hearts and gizzards, take the feathers and oil and discard the rest."^[52]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Lake