The Judas fish in Yellowstone

In Yellowstone, Killing One Kind of Trout to Save Another

By KIRK JOHNSON

Published: August 23, 2011

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — The first “Judas fish” have been released.

As the Biblically inspired name suggests, the fish — surgically altered lake trout, implanted last week with tiny radio transmitters on a gently rocking open boat by a team of scientists here — are intended to betray. The goal: annihilation.

“Finding where they spawn would be the golden egg,” said Bob Gresswell, a research biologist at the United States Geological Survey, and leader of the Judas team, a strike force in the biggest lake-trout-killing program in the nation. The idea is that the electronic chirps will lead trout hunters into the cold, deep corners of Yellowstone Lake, where the fish might be killed in volume. “The eggs could be killed before they hatch, maybe with electricity, or suction,” Dr. Gresswell said.

That millions of dollars would be spent to eradicate a fish that many people love, and love to eat, is only the beginning of a paradoxical


...Motivation is where it starts, since the goal here in Yellowstone is not the killing itself, but rather the saving of another trout species entirely, the cutthroat, which grizzly bears, egrets, eagles and martens, among others, depend upon for food. Lake trout, which park officials believe were introduced by fishermen a few decades ago, gobble up the cutthroats (named for the slash of red under their jaws). And lake trout, unlike the cuts, as they are called, hide in the deep and do not venture into streams and tributaries to spawn, where bears and other animals can catch and eat them.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/us/24trout.html?_r=1&ref=us