Someone vandalized an area of Taylor Creek last week near a trap that gathers kokanee salmon for eggs, the Department of Fish and Game said Monday.

Rocks near the trap were moved to allow the fish to escape up the creek, said Patrick Foy, spokesperson for Fish and Game. The trap must stay in place for longer than usual now, he said.

"For whoever maliciously did this, they are jeopardizing an operation for the good of the state," he said.

Taylor Creek is one of two areas in California where Fish and Game has easy access to kokanee. The eggs are used to stock 27 locations throughout California.

Mike Harris, the Fish and Game fisheries biologist who is in charge of the kokanee egg taking, said he received a call from Cheryl Millham of Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care last week expressing concern the trap was attracting bears and asking them to remove it.

It was the first time in five years he had heard such a concern, he said.

The Forest Service estimates up to three times the normal number of kokanee will travel up Taylor Creek this month to spawn, around 40,000 to 60,000 fish.

Millham told the Tribune she's received around 11 calls from the public concerned about the number of bears and tourists in the area. She did not think the bears would harm people, but was concerned someone would get hurt trying to approach them or construe a bear's behavior as aggressive and call to have it killed.

"People are calling me demanding I do something," Millham said. She discouraged the callers from touching the trap because it is illegal, she said, and did not know who moved the rocks.

Callers also said it's not right to prevent the fish from going up the stream to spawn when no one from Fish and Game is there to get them, Millham said.

The eggs have a greater chance of surviving in the hatchery than in the creek, Foy said. Hatcheries have around a 95 percent success rate, while eggs in the creek would have a 2 percent chance of survival.

BEAR League president Ann Bryant said she's also received calls on the issue. She did not know who damaged the trap, but said whoever did it was "smart." Fish and Game's operations in the creek are "tampering with nature," she said.

"It's an unnatural thing, and they are causing the bears to congregate," Bryant said. "Something's going to happen."

The BEAR League has a history of controversy with Fish and Game. Three bears were killed last year in the Homewood area after the department issued a depredation permit following $100,000 of reported damage to a vacation home.

There will be bears in the area with or without the trap, Harris said, and the public should be informed to stay away from them.

The vandalism will cause considerable delay in egg gathering, as they still have around 400,000 eggs to catch. On October 13, they gathered 800,000 eggs from 1,300 female salmon.

The public is always curious about their operations, Harris said, but seem satisfied when they hear the salmon always die anyway after spawning and that the eggs are used to stock other locations in the state.

"We just get in and out and we don't want to cause any problems," Harris said.

The Forest Service told him they have not received complaints of bears in the area, he said.