O
n the other hand, one of the most creative ideas I’ve seen, in the category of ‘power to the steelheaders’ was contained in an editorial by Frank Amato, in the May 2009 Salmon Trout Steelheader, called A Manifesto for Restoring Wild Steelhead and Salmon Runs Including a Radical Proposal. In it he said “Here’s how you and I just might be able to--quickly and inexpensively--rebuild wild steelhead and salmon runs! Join me now and help stream-feed, mileby-mile, millions of starving, just-spawned and yearling wild juvenile steelhead, coho, chinook, and cutthroat from May until October in over a thousand West Coast streams!” Amato encouraged people to feed fish food pellets and provided some tips for success. Talk about taking things into your own hands. I didn’t do it at the time for lack of science. Just prior to seeing Frank’s Manifesto I had asked a fisheries biologist what he thought a 19” trout in a steelhead river was about. His response was that it was probably a steelhead smolt that, under good stream conditions had enough food to grow large in the river and, as a consequence, never migrated to sea.