Posted on 01/31/2009 5:31:04 AM PST by NellieMae
A 23-year-old transient was sentenced to 10 days in County Jail on Wednesday for catching and cooking a federally protected steelhead trout from San Luis Obispo Creek. Victor Manuel Silva was convicted of illegally taking and possessing wildlife. Wildlife officials said the poaching was a blow to the species because the fish was an egg-carrying female that was killed before she had a chance to spawn. Her eggs were strewn along the banks of the creek.
A homeless man was sentenced to 10 days for cooking this steelhead. CLICK FOR MORE PHOTOS Poll: What do you think of criminally charging a homeless man for eating a protected species? It's a protected species for a reason. Let the poor man eat! A warning would have been fair, but charges are extreme.
Silva was arrested Sunday at 5 p.m. at the Elks Lane Bridge over San Luis Obispo Creek. Warden Teri Hickey had responded to the area as a result of a tip. When she arrived, she found a group of three or four homeless men camped out beneath the bridge, cooking a large fish over a fire and getting ready to eat it. “They had slices of lemon and a loaf of sourdough bread,” Fish and Game Lt. Dean Hileman said. “It was almost a meal fit for a king.” Silva admitted catching the fish from the creek. He had no identification and was arrested. Another man in the group, who had outstanding warrants, was also arrested.
(Excerpt) Read more at sanluisobispo.com ...
Poached Steelhead is not nearly as good; it has a gamey taste. Steelhead is much better grilled with bacon & water chestnuts.
Jail food is better . . .
No. The meat tends to turn blood red after they get out of the hatcherys and on their own. Its cold water I believe that does that since the stealhead in Lake Superior as well as the lake trout have blood red meat.
All Trout are salmon..just s different species of salmon.
Not true.
Salmon spawn once. Then they die.
Trout can keep going as many seasons as they live.
This is over kill IMO. What harm would it have done to explain that he couldn’t catch that species and let him enjoy his meal? If it happened again then maybe....
What’s wrong with looking the other way and let a hungry man eat. Kind of like when you pull over the mayors son!!
This would all stop happening if we’d just feed the homeless to the hungry.
I think it is from the salt water.
Steelhead and salmon caught in the Great Lakes all have white meat.
I used to fish off the piers on both Lake Michigan and lake Huron during the runs in the early fall-late summer.
The meat was always white but always VERY tasty.
Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish, the only living family of the order Salmoniformes. It includes salmon, trout, chars, freshwater whitefishes and graylings. The Atlantic salmon and trout of genus Salmo give the family and order their names.
Salmonids have a relatively primitive appearance among the teleost fish, with the pelvic fins being placed far back, and an adipose fin towards the rear of the back. They are slender fishes, with rounded scales and a forked tail. Their mouths contain a single row of sharp teeth.[2] Although the smallest species is just 13 centimetres (5.1 in) long as an adult, most are much larger, and the largest can reach 2 metres (6.6 ft).[1]
All salmonids spawn in fresh water, but in many cases, the fish spend most of their life at sea, returning to the rivers only to reproduce. This type of life cycle is described as anadromous. They are predators, feeding on small crustaceans, aquatic insects, and smaller fish.[2]
Why is it that folks cant research beforehand?
Good question. I ask it often.
All western North American trout have been reclassified from the genus Salmo to the genus Oncorhynchus, as summarized by Smith and Stearly (1989) and adopted by the American Fisheries Society’s Committee on Names of Fishes (Robins et al. 1991)
http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/snfpa/final-seis/biological-documents/BO/III/3.htm
There is a good chance that is not a citizen or a guest in good standing. Would this change anybody views on the subject?
I must apologize for my fishy faux-pas! I know the difference between steelhead, which are sea-run rainbow trout and salmon. I stand humbled, shamed in my haste to go for the cheap joke.
Maybe I missed it but did the article say what he used for bait?
Huh?
:o) LOL
Oncorhynchus is a genus of in the family Salmonidae; it contains the Pacific salmons and Pacific trouts. The name of the genus is derived from the Greek onkos (”hook”) and rynchos (”nose”), in reference to the “kype” - the hooked jaw of males in mating season. Their range extends from Beringia southwards, roughly to Japan and the southwestern USA.
Salmon and trout with ranges in the Pacific Ocean waters are members of the genus. Unlike many trout species of the mainly European genus Salmo, most Oncorhynchus are anadromous (migratory) and die after spawning.
So like they say...go fish.
Sorry I hadnt replied sooner. Just got back from out of town.
Hey! You aint one of them norwesterners that call a German Brown a Brook Trout are you?
You are both a trial and tribulation to me.
I am a writer and something I wrote about concerning the human condition is this. “~~if you think you are better than anyone else at all on this earth, the time is now that you start thinking again~~~ (Tony Fleamann).
Look at the whole picture in this country. People are losing their jobs in huge masses everyday. There are not jobs to go around. Perhaps this young man did not have the opportunity to get a decent education. Perhaps his life has not gone so well.
You are assuming this man is a bum. Tommy003
Toomy003
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