by Anders Halverson

An extract from Amazon

"Anders Halverson provides an exhaustively researched and grippingly rendered account of the rainbow trout and why it has become the most commonly stocked and controversial freshwater fish in the United States. Discovered in the remote waters of northern California, rainbow trout have been artificially propagated and distributed for more than 130 years by government officials eager to present Americans with an opportunity to get back to nature by going fishing. Proudly dubbed “an entirely synthetic fish” by fisheries managers, the rainbow trout has been introduced into every state and province"

Priced at around £11.00 upwards just wondering if anyone has read it and can it be recommended?

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[COLOR="Blue"]"A fish seen is a fish nearly caught"[/COLOR]

Loopy,

Reading it at the moment and from my perspective (bit of a luddite no idea about the genesis of the Rainbow Trout) it's very interesting. Pretty well-written and accessible in my opinion.

Ben

Say what?????

"Discovered in the remote waters of northern California..."

I really doubt that as Rainbow trout, and their over grown Cousin the Steelhead,** have been around for thousands of years in rivers from Southern California to Alaska.

** DNA wise they're the same.

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"The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a
living are now outnumbered by those who vote for a living." -- Anonymous

Saw it in a book shop , here in san francisco but decided to buy a book The first Americans instead easker1

Hi Ben

Haven't read it yet (on me xmas list) if you can let us know your thoughts after you have finished reading the book be much obliged.

Cheers

__________________
[COLOR="Blue"]"A fish seen is a fish nearly caught"[/COLOR]

Don't deny that for a minutre Fred; the book deals with the 'discovery' of Rainbows by the aquaculturists in the 1800s in the waters of Northern Cali. Doesn't claim that they were never there or anywhere else before that as far as I have found.

Ben

Will do.

Ben

Just 'fluffing the Author's feathers' here Ben. But I'm sure 'trappers, et. al.' were eating them long before that. There name for Rainbow's was 'dinner.'

But the presumption of the most transplanted fish in the world (time wise) I have no doubt. Will have to go back to Google, but I'm fairly (well more than a bit off from memory) but the "Rainbow/Steelhead" were nailed down back in the late 1700's. Russia?

Edit: Well close anyway from a dusty memory.

"The species was originally named by Johann Julius Walbaum in 1792 based on type specimens from Kamchatka. Richardson named a specimen of this species Salmo gairdneri in 1836, and in 1855, W. P. Gibbons found a population and named it Salmo iridia, later corrected to Salmo irideus, however these names faded once it was determined that Walbaum's type description was conspecific and therefore had precedence (see e.g. Behnke, 1966).[5] More recently, DNA studies showed rainbow trout are genetically closer to Pacific salmon (Onchorhynchus species) than to brown trout (Salmo trutta) or Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar), so the genus was changed.

Unlike the species' former name's epithet iridia (Latin: rainbow), the specific epithet mykiss derives from the local Kamchatkan name 'mykizha'; all of Walbaum's species names were based on Kamchatkan local names.

The ocean going (anadromous) form (including tho..... " Etc., and etc.

fae

__________________
"The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a
living are now outnumbered by those who vote for a living." -- Anonymous

Fred

Have you read this book?

__________________
[COLOR="Blue"]"A fish seen is a fish nearly caught"[/COLOR]

Getting into the book now. Restricted in time due to work so slow going but it's interesting. Some assertions in my mind don't quite carry the appropriate level of justification in areas clearly in dispute but that's me and my dissertation-style OCD on such matters.

The book agrees on the Mykiss origin (Kamchatka).

Just got past the whole Oncorhynchus vs Salmo argument and I now understand the furore regarding this genus change and its effect on the classification of the Steelhead as genetically the same as the rainbow Trout (which I previously didn't). I think the book kind of avoids the obvious debate in that one (the genetic similarity) by majoring on the Oncorhynchus vs Salmo debate as the Steelhead vs Rainbow debate, mentioning the - dare I say to paraphrase the book - elitist view of Steelhead anglers, but I wholly understand and sympathise with the conservation justification for that, which the book duly mentions. As a Brit that's interesting in itself as there isn't the same debate about the Salmo Trutta clasification for Brown Trout and Sea Trout, though we suffer the same conservation issues for Sea Trout and the core species is stocked commercially, which the book seems to define as another major factor for the dissatisfaction over the classification of Steelhead and Rainbows as the same species (hence my mention of elitism but I don't say that in a derogatory sense - I completely understand it).

Despite a few faults this is an interesting book which I am enjoying and while I accept some must be taken with a pinch of salt it is informative.

Ben

The 'miss-information' in this book (or more properly the claim in the thread starter) still bugs me for some reason so did 30 seconds worth of research:

"The species was originally named by Johann Julius Walbaum in 1792 based on type specimens from Kamchatka. Richardson named a specimen of this species Salmo gairdneri in 1836, and in 1855, W. P. Gibbons found a population and named it Salmo iridia, later corrected to Salmo irideus, however these names faded once it was determined that Walbaum's type description was conspecific and therefore had precedence (see e.g. Behnke, 1966).[5] More recently, DNA studies showed rainbow trout are genetically closer to Pacific salmon (Onchorhynchus species) than to brown trout (Salmo trutta) or Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar), so the genus was changed.

Unlike the species' former name's epithet iridia (Latin: rainbow), the specific epithet mykiss derives from the local Kamchatkan name 'mykizha'; all of Walbaum's species names were based on Kamchatkan local names."

The ocean going (anadromous) form (including those returning for spawning) are known as steelhead, (Canada and the United States) or ocean trout (Australia), although they are the same species.

__________________
"The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a
living are now outnumbered by those who vote for a living." -- Anonymous