An assessment of bull trout and lake trout interactions in Flathead Lake, Montana : a report to the Montana bull trout restoration team ; Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks ; and Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes /

A panel of fishery scientists met in Poison, MT, November 17-19, 1997, to assess the most likely reasons for the recent decline of bull trout in Flathead Lake and to examine options for restoring that species in the drainage.Lake trout have come to dominate the fish community of Flathead Lake since the introduction of the opossum shrimp, and now represent the greatest obstacle to restoring the bull trout population.The panel concluded that the lake trout population has to be reduced by 70 to 90 percent from present levels if bull trout are to return to population levels of the 1980s.Such a reduction is possible through intensive netting, but a control program would have to be continued indefinitely.Once the lake trout are reduced, some chance exists that the fishery for kokanee salmon can be restored.An alternative is to manage Flathead Lake for introduced lake trout and lake whitefish, foregoing protection of the adfluvial bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout, and concentrating effort to protect the natives in other parts of the drainage.This alternative option, however, would probably result in further decline or extinction of bull trout in Flathead Lake.