The Times Gets It !

June 2, 2006
Editorial
An Idea Worth Throwing Back

After a yearlong experiment with rainbow trout, researchers at the
University of Missouri have announced that feeding them creatine — the
body-building supplement Mark McGwire made infamous — can improve their
fighting ability. Actually, these experiments demonstrate that trout
eating a 5 percent creatine diet can swim against the current far longer
than fish that aren't taking the supplement. No one has tested these
creatine rainbows against an actual angler. But that has not prevented
the researchers from leaping to an economic conclusion. "Fishermen
probably would pay a premium for a chance of catching fish that fought
longer and harder," one of them said.

Probably. But also probably not. A trout that is being fed creatine is
being fed by humans. The ones at the University of Missouri were tested
in double-walled plexiglass tubes. The ones that anglers are likely to
hook would be living in ponds, where their diets could be supplemented
with creatine. They would be hatchery fish. And that's where the irony
of a study like this becomes apparent.

If you've ever caught a wild rainbow trout — truly wild, like those in
the Delaware or the Madison River — you know that it doesn't need any
help from creatine. A hatchery trout is a different creature entirely —
a wan spirit reared in concrete tanks, fed trout pellets, and dumped
into a foreign world on opening day. Creatine might make a difference to
these fish and the anglers who catch them, but it's the wrong
difference, especially since the F.D.A. hasn't approved creatine as a
food additive. Anglers don't need creatine-enhanced hatchery trout. What
we need are more wild trout in more wild rivers.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

If you've ever caught a wild rainbow trout - truly wild, like those in
the Delaware or the Madison River - you know that it doesn't need any
help from creatine. A hatchery trout is a different creature entirely -
a wan spirit reared in concrete tanks, fed trout pellets, and dumped
into a foreign world on opening day. Creatine might make a difference to
these fish and the anglers who catch them, but it's the wrong
difference, especially since the F.D.A. hasn't approved creatine as a
food additive. Anglers don't need creatine-enhanced hatchery trout. What
we need are more wild trout in more wild rivers.

Hatchery trout, as endorsed by Barry Bonds, the official food of
professional baseball.
Frank Reid

Ken Fortenberry wrote:
June 2, 2006
Editorial
An Idea Worth Throwing Back

OK, that makes up for them not getting it on Iraq's fictitious WMDs.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

rw wrote:
Ken Fortenberry wrote:
June 2, 2006
Editorial
An Idea Worth Throwing Back

OK, that makes up for them not getting it on Iraq's fictitious WMDs.

Heh. But they did end up firing the bitch.

--
Ken Fortenberry