Are there large mouth bass in alaska

Pike are now established in more than lakes and rivers in the region, according to the state, and in systems with their preferred habitat — shallow, slow-moving water thick with vegetation — they have taken over. Zonneville said Fish and Game has no idea where the bass came from, but it had to have been dumped illegally in the lake. There are no known natural or accidental ways it could have moved to Alaska.

The nearest known bass populations are in central British Columbia, Canada — more than miles to the south. Bass are, however, readily available online. The fish are shipped FedEx overnight. The shipper guarantees the arrival of live fish. It is annually stocked with rainbow trout, which would make for tasty fare for largemouth bass, and it has plenty of weedy shallows that would provide good habitat for the bass as was once the case for pike.

Sand Lake was treated with rotenone, a fish-killing poison, in to rid it of those predators. It was later restocked with rainbows. We have it the bass in our refrigerator now. The agency plans an assessment to see if there are more bass in the lake. If there are, another eradication program will likely be considered.

Predatory, invasive fish popular with anglers in the Lower 48 have been a nightmare in the Cook Inlet region. Pike destroyed a hugely popular king salmon fishery on Alexander Creek, only about 30 miles north of Anchorage, in the late s. Kristine Dunker, the invasive species coordinator for the Sportfish Division of Fish and Game has recounted the sad history there :.

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Due to the prolonged winters we have here, bass in Alaska would most likely be stunted compared to fish found down south and have a shorter window to reproduce in the spring. Both largemouth and smallmouth bass are voracious predators and will eat a variety of prey. As adult fish, they are often the top predators in the lakes they inhabit.

Because of this, they have the capacity to change the entire food web in places where they are introduced. According to the Invasive Species Council of British Columbia, largemouth bass have led to the local extinction of several prey fish populations in the province. Largemouth bass have been listed among the top 10 invasive fish species in the world because of negative impacts from disease transmission or predation on native fish populations.

Smallmouth bass have been similarly introduced throughout the western U. Smallmouth bass can affect native fish and invertebrates through direct predation as well as through competition for prey.

Would any bass species illegally introduced to Alaska have a similar effect? Along the same lines of discussion, the Department often gets asked about stocking other nonindigenous species like crappies, perch, bluegill, walleye, muskies and catfish. Alaska has always taken a very conservative stance on stocking fish, and this is entirely to protect our highly-valued salmon, trout, and other resident fisheries.

Non-native warm water species would compete with Alaskan species for prey, or prey on them directly. The extra competition for space and prey would also lower survival of juvenile salmon and trout. Therefore, to avoid these outcomes, non-Alaskan fish species are simply not stocked anywhere in the state.

Alaska is fortunate to have world-class fisheries that the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is constitutionally mandated to protect. Because of this, we have very strict stocking policies. Per our policy, we only stock species present in and native to the state, and only use local broodstock. This means we collect local eggs to raise in our hatcheries and then stock these native fish when they are big enough to survive on their own.

We stock fish for two main reasons: to provide angling opportunities and to reduce fishing pressure on wild fish populations. We have careful and scientifically-based policies for where and when we stock these fish. We have extensive protocols to prevent disease transmissions. However, we do so in a manner that is highly controlled, monitored, and scientifically-designed to keep native fish populations in those areas safe and healthy.

However, even in these totally closed stocked lakes, our stringent stocking policies help ensure that if these fish would ever escape in a flood or some other way, they would have a low risk of spreading diseases or begin reproducing on their own. These precautions are not met when someone decides to take matters into their own hands and illegally stock fish, and herein lies one of the greatest threats we have to the health of our native fish populations in Alaska.

Over the years, there have been many instances of illegal fish introductions with several of them resulting in reproducing populations. In some of these cases like with the perch, muskies and several pike populations, the Department has already removed them from the lakes they were introduced to.

However, removal of these illegally-introduced species comes at a great cost. However, when people illegally stock fish or other animals, they may not understand the risks of what they are doing. Regardless of the reason, doing this is extremely reckless…and, again, illegal. Per Alaska Statute AS The penalties are seriously hefty, for good reason. Without even realizing it, someone moving fish, frogs, water bugs or anything else on their own could introduce diseases or parasites to the waters they stock.

This is a huge risk that could kill entire populations of native fish. Further, people unknowingly could introduce an animal or plant that thrives, takes over, and becomes an invasive species here.