Representatives of the Bow River Irrigation District have a genuine concern about sportsfish, and even non-sportsfish, trapped in irrigation canal intakes systems, says Richard Phillips. The district engineer for the BRID wants people to look at the entire picture, and not make irrational statements distorting the facts.

"For one thing, there’s a myth about the Bow being a natural river", says Phillips. "It is a world-class river, but in no small part due to the influence of man. The Bow is very far from natural. The fact is, the city of Calgary sewage plant adds nutrients to that river every minute, benefiting fish".

Before TransAlta dams appeared on the Bow system, the lowest recorded flow for the river at the Calgary station was 3.48 cubic meters per second. Now, with the dams, the river’s minimal water flow is 30 to 40 cubic metres per second through Calgary, creating a positive impact for overwintering fish.

"This positive impact on the fishery is a direct result of man’s intervention and the result is a blue ribbon fishery", Phillips says. "The Bow is beautiful. It looks natural, but stop and remember, that between TransAlta dams and the city, the river is far from natural and because of that, it is better for fishermen".

The BRID has been drawing water from the Bow, near Carsland, since the 1920s, well before the Bow was a world-class trout fishery.

As well, the first brown trout entered the Bow system by accident at Banff in 1925, when a government hatchery truck loaded with brown trout broke down and the driver dumped the load into Carrot Creek, rather than have them die.

"The attitude back then was ‘let’s stock some fish’, and they tended to do it helter skelter at times", Phillips says with a smile. "Well those brown trout today are certainly not native to the Bow River drainage. The rainbow became popular in the 1930s and 1940s, and they were stocked. They definitely are not native to the Bow."

Fish native to the Bow include cutthroat trout and Rocky Mountain whitefish. The Bow between Calgary and the Siksika Nation is a cold-water fishery, but further down the river the warmer waters support pike, walleye, ling, sturgeon, suckers and goldeye.

Phillips says the Carseland diversion was operating well before brown trout and rainbow came along, and yet they are still doing wonderfully well, despite the fact the diversion was there first.

"Now the Bow is a good resource and is used by a good section of the public", says Emil Johnson, water master for the BRID. "The fish live in our shared water resource and we support the use of that resource by everyone. We are not convinced fish trapped in the irrigation canals are the catastrophe some people say it is".

Phillips says very few of the trapped trout are mature, with 90 to 95 per cent fingerling-size, and more than 99 per cent of the whitefish trapped are juveniles.

While he says the fish rescue program the past few years is a positive action, he believes the results have been twisted by the media and special interest groups.

"People see the stories on TV and in the newspapers, and the pictures of a person holding a large rainbow, and determine all fish are that size and something is seriously wrong", says Phillips.

"Figures of 70,000 to 80,000 sportsfish are bandied about, but people aren’t told the vast majority are fingerling size".

Phillips doesn’t oppose installation of a fish exclusion device at the canal intake. He just wants to see one which meets the need and will be practical. He also wants the facts which may lead to the installation to be fair.