Salmon with missing adipose fin

Two weeks ago I caught a salmon with a missing adipose fin.  It's been in the freezer while I work on getting a Little Chief.  Do I have to worry about swallowing a microchip if I eat it's head?   

Don't eat it! Give it to me and I will "dispose of it"....


Years ago the fish counters at the dock would ask for part of the head to retrieve the wire tag imbedded within. In return they would take a Polaroid pic (yeah, that long ago) of you and your fish. In addition they gave us a small plastic bag which held a very small piece of wire and some literature about the wire which records date, location, and other info about the fish's history.  Not sure what is used these days?

Don't worry about swallowing the microchip.  It might come in handy if you ever get lost in the fog and we have to get the CG to look for you.    

Rey

Don't eat it! Give it to me and I will "dispose of it"....

+1 

Years ago the fish counters at the dock would ask for part of the head to retrieve the wire tag imbedded within.

They still do. I fished party boats out of HMB in April and May this year and DFG was there to take the heads of the hatchery fish when we landed. I made them leave me the collars. One time I asked them to remove the cheeks also, he gave me a dirty look.    We are lucky because where we launch and land, there aren't enough fish to make it worth their while. So by all means, eat that fish head, just don't eat the hardware.  Actually, I split and eat every head and I have never found the chip. Hope they don't hide them in the cheek. 

They took two heads off of us on Saturday off the Emeryville dock.

Don't worry about swallowing the microchip.  It might come in handy if you ever get lost in the fog and we have to get the CG to look for you.    

Rey

LOL!

Like the others said, those salmon with missing ad fins are tagged with a coded wire tag.

Here is an administrative report that talks about the program:
drr... lemme find a working link

I don't mind handing it over for research if they REALLY want it. Just don't tell my family because they'll disown me. Lol! 

Did the same thing in Emeryville back in May.  I was kind of looking forward to using that for bait but, in the name of science.

I worked (summer seasonal) for DFG for a few years on a creel crew specifically monitoring CWT (coded wire tag) Chinook salmon in the Sacramento Valley.  Funding was cut for that research project so I moved to Kokanee monitoring in reservoirs.  I helped with tagging, recovering and reading the tags.  When we tag the fish they are about 3”-5” long and use a tagging machine to insert the tag.  Grab the fish which is sedated, place fish in nose cone on machine, press button, wire from a spool is forced into the nose and cut at a specified length.  The spool of wire has a series of code numbers which is repeated on the entire length on the wire spool.  Then scan the recently tagged fish to make sure the tag is embedded.  When doing field work and collecting heads at boat ramps or fish cleaning stations we look for adipose clipped fish and ask for the heads and explain the research.  When I was doing this it was voluntary for the fisherman but the rules may have changed.  Rarely were we denied the salmon heads, and usually just cleaned the whole fish as a courtesy.  I understand some of you eat the cheeks or want to keep the head for soup stock and figured out that you usually only need to cut from right behind the eyes down toward the mouth since the CWT is in the top portion of the nose.  DFG should have their metal detector wand, so ask them to just cut the nose off and scan.