Hi John,

I'm not normally one to 2nd guess the biologist, but in NZ the Rotorua and Taupo areas are huge fisheries and tourist industries. There's a view that Rainbows are worth more, considered easier to catch, put up a more impressive fight (jump more, etc), so browns are often viewed as something to be removed. The decision to remove browns is an attempt to reduce the practice of C&R, because the fish population grows to such a size that the fish end up being smaller. In the early 1900s they netted tons of fish to remove them, and for a couple seasons the remaining fish were massive (I'll try and remember to look the details up and report on it, but it's scattered through a couple books I've not read in a while). The past few years the fish have been smaller than usual, so the idea now seems to be to reduce the competition by removing the unwanted browns.

Much of the goal by the fisheries here is to maintain a viable commercial industry, and brown trout are considered bad for business.

In the end, though, this ist a fishery that won't be hurt by people keeping a few more fish.

- Jeff