{"id":31009,"date":"2023-10-24T17:52:40","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T23:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/salmon-missing-after-spawning-holding-pen-is-vandalized\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:32:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:32:37","slug":"salmon-missing-after-spawning-holding-pen-is-vandalized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/salmon-missing-after-spawning-holding-pen-is-vandalized\/","title":{"rendered":"Salmon missing after spawning holding pen is vandalized"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The kokanee salmon holding pen before it was vandalized on Navajo Lake.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the people involved in the vandalism of a salmon holding pen at Navajo Lake.<\/p>\n

Each year Game and Fish keep kokanee salmon in a holding pen to assist with spawning efforts. However, on Oct. 20, the Navajo Lake holding pen was vandalized.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe holding pen was found dragged from the lake, and hundreds of Salmon inside waiting for spawn were missing,\u201d according to a news release from the state agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe loss of this spawn has dramatic impacts on future kokanee fishing opportunities, as they do not sustain their populations via natural spawning,\u201d said Kirk Patten, the department\u2019s chief of fisheries.<\/p>\n

\"A
A kokanee salmon captured by Department of Game and Fish fisheries biologists as part of the annual spawning efforts.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Department officials said the impact of the vandalism is significant, because \u201cevery fish we can collect eggs from is critical to maintaining the fishery,\u201d Patten said. \u201cTo have someone remove these fish from our trap is a massive hit to the state\u2019s fisheries, especially this year when populations are already low.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kokanee salmon populations are low and on the decline, because of drought and warm temperatures. The once-a-year salmon spawn happens with the help of Game and Fish staff, who \u201cattempt to artificially spawn several thousand salmon to hatch and rear the eggs in its Los Ojos Hatchery,\u201d the release stated.<\/p>\n

The offspring from this once-a-year effort are \u201cstocked into cold-water lakes in Northern New Mexico,\u201d the release stated.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information about this vandalism is asked to call the Operation Game Thief hotline at 1-800-432-4263.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Game and Fish offers $2,500 to locate vandals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81284,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31009\/revisions\/81284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31009"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}