It is basically an effort to privatize a public resource with a product ill-suited for the natural environment.
To understand the difference in production of trout by private aquaculture and those produced by state fishery managers, one needs only to look at the motivation for both.
Private aquaculture is commodity-oriented, producing fish and fish eggs for fee fishing, private ponds, commercial fish production facilities and the dressed-fish market. Its primary goal is to produce a profit with the meat and short-term recreation that is produced by rapidly grown trout.
State fish managers are stewardship-oriented, charged with the management of the aquatic natural resources of the state and the production of trout that can survive for years in the state's surface waters. The aquatic milieu they are responsible for is a complex system of lakes, reservoirs, rivers and streams with a broad array of native and introduced trout species and other game and non-game fishes.
The disease-free production and distribution of salmonids to fit into this array of environments requires substantial capital investment in facilities and research provided in a large measure by the DWR's Fishery Experiment Station.
The fishing public supports the stewardship function, the research, fish production and distribution with the license fees and federal aid funds generated by excise taxes from the purchase of fishing and boating gear (these are not taxes paid by the general public).
At its best the private aquaculture industry consisted of a few major growers who in turn subcontract fish production to approximately 25 smaller growers for an annual value of approximately $2 million.
As of 2005 the private fish production industry is valued at $259,000 as reported by the Utah Department of Agriculture. Contrast this with the $300 million recreation fishing industry supported by the fishing public.
In 1994 private growers prevailed upon the Legislature to remove fish disease control pioneered by the pathology program of DWR's Fishery Experiment Station and shift it to the Department of Agriculture's state veterinarian with an advisory committee dominated by private growers.
This setup was deemed unsatisfactory by DWR and recreation interests and was amended in 1998 by the Legislature to create a balanced fish disease policy board with a representative of the private growers, the Department of Agriculture's state veterinarian, a pathologist, a representative of the trout anglers, the director of the DWR and its fish pathologist and led by a non-voting chair.
The board is responsible for listing the diseases requiring control and their implementation. Regulation is vested with the state veterinarian.
This system worked well with the support of both the private and public sectors until whirling disease reared its ugly head.
The parasite was likely unintentionally brought into the state from Colorado by some of the small pond contractors. It quickly spread among the private growers and subsequently, by their effluents, into the waters of the state including the Fremont and Sevier rivers. As a result, private fish stocks endured infections that forced many growers out of business.
The disease was also spread to several of the state's facilities, which had to be decontaminated and rebuilt in an effort to stem the further spread of whirling disease that endangers naturally produced native and introduced species of sport fish as well as threatened and endangered fishes in Utah waters.
In our considered opinion it would be a serious mistake to subsidize the private growers by requiring the DWR to purchase their product. They have neither the research expertise nor the resources necessary to produce the fish that can meet the DWR's exacting requirements.
Our fishery resources would be endangered and the fishing public would be deprived of the full measure of the money they spend for a clean and viable fishing experience.
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* JOHN M. NEUHOLD is Utah State University's emeritus professor of natural resources.RONALD W. GOEDE is the former director of DWR's Fishery Experiment Station.
