7/2017
I was listening to NPR (I admire National Public Radio for the public display of their stupidity) and there was a program on cutthroat trout being endangered by the more popular rainbow trout. Such a sad event and we, humans, are responsible. Well, all that is a given. If you listen to NPR, you’d know that any wildlife program is about the threatened status of the topic species and we humans are the cause. But beyond that, there is the statement by the NPR interviewer that went uncorrected by the cutthroat trout “expert” that was interviewed.
I don’t remember the statement verbatim but the interviewer expressed his surprise that a trout named cutthroat would be less than vicious in maintaining it’s position in nature and let a trout named rainbow take away it’s habitat. As if the wimpy rainbow was bullying the stoic, tough cutthroat. And he was serious, expressing this a couple of times in the program.
What an idiot. The guy didn’t even bother to look up the topic he was discussing. Cutthroat trout derive their name from the slash of bright red color along the lower jaw region. It has nothing to do with it’s tenacity. (1)
There is the following statement. “Cutthroat trout spawn in the spring and may inadvertently but naturally [emphasis added] hybridize with rainbow trout, producing fertile “cutbows”.
There is note that the US Bureau of Fisheries has had a breeding program for cutthroat trout and has exported over 800 million eggs to park hatcheries throughout the US. I have personally benefited from this program by fishing cutthroat trout in Arkansas.
But, alas. It was a national reporter that didn’t get his show prep off research on google. Things might be improving after all.
Your fly fishing grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave.
Weary