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From: John <fishes@brainerd.net> To: Allen Garber <allen.garber@dnr.state.mn.us> CC: Representative Dale Walz <dale@dalewalz.com>, Tom Bakk <rep.thomas.bakk@house.leg.state.mn.us>, Alice Hausman <rep.alice.hausman@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.dennis.ozment" <rep.dennis.ozment@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.kathy.tingelstad" <rep.kathy.tingelstad@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.jean.wagenius" <rep.jean.wagenius@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.george.cassell" <rep.george.cassell@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.tim.finseth" <rep.tim.finseth@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.bill.haas" <rep.bill.haas@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.tom.hackbarth" <rep.tom.hackbarth@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.mark.holsten" <rep.mark.holsten@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.larry.howes" <rep.larry.howes@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.bud.nornes" <rep.bud.nornes@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.howard.swenson" <rep.howard.swenson@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.ray.vandeveer" <rep.ray.vandeveer@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.tom.workman" <rep.tom.workman@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.loren.jennings" <rep.loren.jennings@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.ruth.johnson" <rep.ruth.johnson@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.margaret.kelliher" <rep.margaret.kelliher@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.tom.osthoff" <rep.tom.osthoff@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.doug.peterson" <rep.doug.peterson@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.rod.skoe" <rep.rod.skoe@house.leg.state.mn.us>, "rep.scott.wasiluk" <rep.scott.wasiluk@house.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Samuelson <sen.don.samuelson@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Vickerman <sen.jim.vickerman@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Stumpf <sen.leroy.stumpf@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Stevens <sen.dan.stevens@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Price <sen.len.price@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Pogemiller <sen.larry.pogemiller@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Olson <sen.gen.olson@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Krentz <sen.jane.krentz@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Higgins <sen.linda.higgins@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Frederickson <sen.dennis.frederickson@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Anderson <sen.ellen.anderson@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Tomassoni <sen.david.tomassoni@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Berg <sen.charles.berg@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Dille <sen.steve.dille@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Kinkel <sen.tony.kinkel@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Knutson <sen.david.knutson@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Ring <sen.twyla.ring@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Senator Samuelson <sen.don.samuelson@senate.leg.state.mn.us>, Wendy Underwood <Wendy.Underwood@state.mn.us>, Brad Moore <brad.moore@dnr.state.mn.us>, Kim Bonde <kim.bonde@dnr.state.mn.us>
May 22, 2001 Commissioner Allen Garber 500 Layfayette Road St. Paul MN 55155-4037
Dear Commissioner Garber, I read the (Schultz et al. 2001, North American Journal of Fish Management 21:96-101) paper cited in your response to my informal complaint of unethical conduct by Fisheries staff. The statement in your letter that ploidy testing is known to have a 2.5% error rate is false and misleading even when applied to batch testing. What it actually says is that the test will detect a diploid if the incidence of diploids in a previously tested population is greater than 2.5%. This is not the same as error rate and brings into question the credibility of fisheries staff. The facts are that the test is statistically designed to have a 95% confidence level of detecting diploids by testing 120 fish in a population of 1,000,000 fish if 2.5% are diploids. If anything it is a testimony of the reliability of the testing procedure. Fisheries staff should have known this because if I am not mistaken it is very similar to the health certification process used by the MN DNR and most state agencies. I suspected this is where the 2.5% error rate figure came from when I read the briefing paper. Also, there is relevant information in the paper that was conveniently overlooked by fisheries staff when preparing the briefing paper. This suggests that fisheries staff was only looking for reasons to deny the importation of triploid grass carp. Policy decisions need to be based on facts not prejudice. The authors of the paper stated. "Our results suggest that feral grass carp in the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed are predominantly composed of triploid individuals, 44% of these fish showing gonad development. Ploidy analysis of gonadal tissues suggests that triploid X triploid and triploid X diploid crosses would be extremely unlikely to produce viable offspring in the natural environment. Feral triploid grass carp do not appear to pose a long-term threat to the ecosystem due to the unlikely potential for reproduction or establishment of a breeding population. Conversely, the proportion of feral grass carp diploids collected was not trivial, which suggests that diploids have entered (or are entering) the watershed. The age of diploids collected (i.e., age corresponds with an authorized stocking event), the absence of juvenile and young grass carp in our survey, and the fact that illegal stocking of diploids is known to have occurred at least once suggest that diploids in the feral grass carp population are most likely a result of intentional illegal importation and release. Our results suggest that administrators and managers should focus on prevention of the introduction of diploid grass carp." This strongly states that triploids are not the problem. If anything, having feral triploids will actually reduce the spawning success of feral diploids. This is similar to the strategy of releasing sterile male Mediterranean fruit flies in California. The continued attempts to deliberately mislead speaks poorly of the credibility of the MN DNR fisheries staff. I maintain my assertion that Mr. Wingate deliberately tried to mislead the House committee with his testimony and briefing paper. I also assert that the author of the letter signed by yourself is one more attempt mislead. Sincerely, John Reynolds Midwest Fish and Crayfish 26385 County Road 3 Merrifield MN 56465
cc. Brad Moore Senator Samuelson Representative Walz House committee Senate committee Wendy Underwood Kim Bonde |