Most of the fish will be tagged and released for study. The cutthroats were captured by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists below Milltown Dam this spring, implanted with radio transmitters and transported above the dam, as part of research being conducted by the agency to assess impacts of the dam on fish migrations in the Clark Fork River drainage. Elementary school students from schools in Bonner, Potomac, Seeley Lake, Ovando, Helmville and Lincoln are monitoring the progress of the fish on a Web site in a pilot educational program. Participating classes each begin the program on separate field trips to Milltown Dam to watch FWP biologists capture fish attempting to migrate upstream to spawn. FWP biologist David Schmetterling has conducted research for several years on the impacts of the dam on Clark Fork drainage fisheries.
Students have the opportunity to watch as workers net and tag fish for release.
FWP biologist David Schmetterline says his crew captured about 55,000 fish at the dam last year. When the instinctual spawning urge overtakes them, the fish attempt to return to the stream in which they were spawned, to renew the cycle, only to be stymied by the dam. As part of his research project, Schmetterling transports native cutthroat and bull trout around the dam, and tracks their upstream spawning journeys through radio telemetry to tributaries in both the Blackfoot and Clark Fork. Last year, Schmetterling tracked the movements of 20 native trout transported above the dam and implanted with radio transmitters. Through that story, you can learn a lot of things, not only about fish ecology, but land management, geography, all sorts of information.