I never thought about the perils of genetically manipulated beef, with my meager BBQ skills I usually eat briquette of “beef like substance”. Charcoal is a spice - get enough black on that haunch and the genetics are the least of your worries.

I’m fine with modified grains - and anything else derived from stem cell research, figuring whatever plague we unleash would be tame compared to what we’d already done to the environment, and it might even weed a few of us conspicuous capitalists off the landscape - lessening the burden somewhat.

But a fellow has to draw the line somewhere’s …

The current flap over a new sewage treatment plant for the Provo River may be our call to arms, not in the traditional sense - but if the manager has his way, they’ll be adding trout to the outflow to test water quality:

Matthews has his own idea for demonstrating the water’s high quality. He wants to build a 10-foot fish tank in the sewer plant to hold a couple of trout from one of the nearby fishing holes. The district will run treated effluent through it.

“If there’s a problem,” he said, “we’ll see it in our own plant.”

The old “canary in a coal mine” ploy - but what if a half dozen fertile fish were to escape after a couple seasons of inhaling pooty water?

It could stimulate catch and release fishing out of self defense, then again, they could be the next Invasive Species - intermingling and inter-breeding with native fish so everything tastes like warm Pampers.

Suddenly I’m waffling on the science front, brown trout are fine - but I don’t want all of them that way…

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If you’re one of the big homebuilders the ground has been coming away from underfoot for over a year -  now the courts have determined all that “ground” went into the creek, and in addition to all the homes they have and can’t sell, they’re liable for the sins committed while building all that excess inventory.

It smells kind of like … Justice …

Michigan-based Pulte Homes, Southern California-based KB Homes, Texas-based Centex Homes and Colorado-based Richmond American Homes agreed to pay a combined $4.3 million in penalties to resolve widespread Clean Water Act stormwater violations at hundreds of construction sites nationwide. The companies are also required to implement a program that should prevent an estimated 1.2 billion pounds of sediment from entering the nation’s waters each year.

In Northern California, the beneficiary will be the Garcia River, home to a modest run of both salmon and steelhead.

Pulte will spend an estimated $418,000 on the North Fork of the Garcia River, the largest sub-watershed of the river, to treat an estimated 13,475 cubic yards of stored and road-related sediment, and upgrade all permanent and seasonal roads and stream crossings within the sub-watershed. The North Fork project will decrease sediment loading and runoff and improve anadromous fish habitat.

The company will also spend an estimated $190,000 on the Blue Waterhole Creek, which is a high-priority for restoration because although it contains good natural pool structures desired by anadromous fish, it is also subject to very high water temperatures lethal to young coho salmon.

Now that we’re counting Salmon on one hand every little bit helps, whether this is the start of an endless chain of appeals, or the start of something tangible remains to be seen.

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Brownlining is fine, but I’ve got to draw the line somewhere. Fishing anywhere in Northern California would be best described as “Brown Lunging” regardless of elevation and venue.

I did manage to sneak out between shifts Saturday morning, fires traditionally dampen down in the evening due to the increased humidity, and the smoke decreases somewhat. I hit the American River at first light and the entire place smelled like Ma’s home cooked Peanut Butter cookies.

I managed to stick a single fish but lost it before it could be identified. I assume it was a Shad - briefly contemplating hanging it from a tree limb for an hour to smoke it …

I headed home before the worst of the smoke returned, nothing like smoking a pack of cigarettes per cast - even the hardiest fishermen would turn tail.

Next week is more of the same, bring your own oxygen mask or stay out of the area.

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Politics makes strange bedfellows and with declining participation in out-of-doors activities you can expect change. The Sierra Club is appealing to the sporting fraternity with it’s launch of the Sierrasportsmen.org website, with content tailored to both hunters and fishermen.

Environmentalists, according to Sierra Club spokeswoman Kristina Johnson, are embracing sportsmen as allies in the common causes of combating mercury-contaminated water, saving salmon from global warming and protecting elk range from oil drilling.

It’s quite understandable as so many of our issues are intertwined. Pollution and Global Warming cross every boundary imaginable, and with the folks in power turning a deaf ear - it’s up to the little guys to band together.

I say “Welcome” - and am pleased to have someone remind me that the tippet I just discarded is a bio-hazard. I get to remind them that they just spooked my fish, so we’re even.

Likely they’ll warm to us “earthy” types quick enough, and if invited to a cocktail party I’ll be on double-good behavior.

Technorati Tags: Sierra Club, Sierrasportsmen.org, uneasy truce

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It’s the best advice I’ve seen to date and based on our track record would work swimmingly, the downside is you’d have to develop a taste for Zebra Mussel Meatloaf, or Quagga Milkshake.

“How to handle an invasive species? Eat it” - an article from the NY Times suggesting there’s something we can do about a seemingly impossible problem. I can’t name a culinary delicacy that’s not already on the decline or completely extinct, it seems that the best weapon against aliens is our gut.

If these species have only the most rudimentary thought processes, would they be so eager to hitch a ride on the waders of “Mr. Supersize,” or will that dark spot under the rock be “.. just fine, thankee…”

Don’t act all squeamish, as you ain’t tried it yet, some garlic and rosemary and we could be sitting on the next great fast food franchise. Mix a little patriotism in, as it’s an election year, and we could declare a culinary Jihad.

All them catchy McDonald’s jingles you’ve memorized over the years can’t compete with “You want Rock Snot with that?”

We’re not the only ones with the savvy, as Jellyfish Ice cream has made one fellow a small fortune, but there’s plenty more invasive species that taste twice as good. With canny marketing, lobsters could be coerced to invade Nebraska, and perhaps we can get a sentient strain of Blackberries to invade Phoenix, or Illinois - then really hit it big.

The profit potential is limitless provided you can keep a straight face, add a fancy french pronunciation, and the Northern Snakehead becomes anything you want…

Technorati Tags: invasive species, snakehead, culinary cutting edge

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We tuned them out once we heard the “lecture” tone, some old SOB wanted to tell us how it’s done, as if he knew anything. Maturity does have value, and fish research is postulating that we’ve got the regulations reversed, and should harvest all them young and dumb fish - as their absence isn’t missed.

“It’s not the young ones that should be thrown back, but the larger, older fish that should be spared. Not only do the older fish provide stability … to the population, they provide more and better quality offspring.

This isn’t going to fly with the “Gurl’s Gone Wild” crowd, you lecherous SOB but it does give you a bit of validation.

“Stability” in fish could be “wisdom” in humans - we’ve been preaching its benefits for years, not that it’s done much good - just count the number of stainless studs in your kid’s nose for proof..

A single large fish will simply grow a little when it gets more food, or lose a little weight when food is scarce. A population of many young, small fish, however, may explode in number or collapse depending on food availability.

Translation: Old guys learned a long time ago that consensus was the root of all societal ills, the younger crowd do everything at the same time causing massive upheaval - ’cause upheaval’s fun as hell.

This is especially important to know when trying to rebuild fish stocks.

This is where the research falls on it’s face, experience has taught us that despite our willingness to “rebuild,” the “grilse” will take one look at the available “mature” genetic material -  holding their breath to make their gut smaller - and the species is doomed.

Technorati Tags: kill the young guys, fishery research, young and dumb

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I figured carp and bass would still be plentiful and assumed I could move to Canada before they close the borders. 

We’ve known the Cockroach is a survivor, and now it’ll have company - as the CO2 enriched atmosphere is building a Poison Ivy superstrain.

New research shows the rash-inducing plant appears to be growing faster and producing more potent oil compared with earlier decades. The reason? Rising ambient carbon-dioxide levels create ideal conditions for the plant, producing bigger leaves, faster growth, hardier plants and oil that’s even more irritating.

Both National Geographic and the Wall Street Journal have published short articles describing how the active ingredient Urushiol has become more virulent since the ’50’s.  CO2 is akin to airborne fertilizer for most plants, Poison Ivy reacts with a hardier plant, larger leaves, and a more virulent toxin.

I suppose we can always “winch” ourselves out of our waders akin to the armored knights of year’s past, or wader technology might simply opt for the disposable flavor - incinerated in a flash of smoke as your wife ushers you through the decontamination room.

Technorati Tags: poison ivy, urushiol, ivy superstrain, greenhouse gas

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A sobering article on Chilean salmon farms is available from the New York Times, in short, after we stomp wild fish to death, we farm them in an unsanitary manner, which stomps other wild fish to death.

Salmon feces and food pellets are stripping the water of oxygen, killing other marine life and spreading disease, biologists and environmentalists say. Escaped salmon are eating other fish species and have begun invading rivers and lakes as far away as neighboring Argentina, researchers say.

Local fishermen have noted an increasing “rosy” tint to fish they catch, the source is assumed to be excess “salmon chow” that falls to the sea floor from the pens.

…the industry needed to limit the escapes of about one million salmon a year; control the use of fungicides like green malachite, a carcinogen that was prohibited in 2002; and better regulate the colorant used to make salmon more rosy, which has been associated with retina problems in humans. It also said Chile’s use of antibiotics was “excessive.”

Costco and Safeway are among the largest importers of Chilean salmon, so if you frequent either - you may want to arm yourself with the facts.

Technorati Tags: chilean salmon farms, antibiotics, salmon virus, tasty

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I always thought there were only two kinds of fish, those worth throwing flies at  - and bait. “Bait” is a slim category as us hardened Californians pride ourselves on being culinary “shock troops” - we gleefully ingest gastronomic foibles, delicacies, and taboo, which doesn’t leave much in the way of undesirable chow.

I’ve tried the cheap stuff and it’s bait. Despite the clever little cracker, cracked ice, and delicate silver spoon, it just didn’t muster any reaction from me other than “empty an aquarium, butter it, then lick the glass.”

We’re talking caviar, a delicacy foisted on us by folks that fermented potatoes for liquor.

Them same lads are proposing a 5 year moratorium on Black Sea sturgeon fishing to preserve the nearly extinct remnants of the Beluga Sturgeon. The US banned importation in 2005, although a lively Black Market still exists.

Poaching of sturgeon has become a $1 billion-a-year business largely in the hands of organized crime. As a result, the fish faces extinction in the Caspian Sea, home to 90 percent of the world’s sturgeon. Russian sturgeon farms in major Caspian ports such as Astrakhan have tried to revive the fish’s population, but the massive amount of overfishing in the Caspian has made replenishment a losing battle.

At nearly $5000 dollars per pound, the Black Sea’s sturgeon are among the most lucrative poaching targets in the world. Now that the Russian government is looking at a worldwide moratorium, the price will become higher.

Is this the same fate we’ll endure with the paltry remnants of the pacific salmon stocks? Next month yields the initial closure and many suggest may be of two year’s duration.

A thriving Black Market will result, led by all those fancy restaurateurs who insist Wild fish are some much more flavorful than farmed. It’s a double whammy to the Dept of Fish and Game as they’re woefully understaffed and now both sturgeon and salmon will be prized poaching targets.

It may be a test of your ethics as so many fish will be hooked fishing for something else. In poor economic times in a depressed community, that’s a hundred dollar bill on the end of your line.

Technorati Tags: beluga sturgeon, russian ban, pacific salmon, poaching

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I go to the doctor with assorted ailments and he prescribes I eat a carp a day and call him in the morning?

It’s a familiar theme that we touched on before - but as more evidence appears in the press, we might want to cut the big drug companies out of the mix - carp is a lot cheaper than prescription meds..

“Lake Mead is a fortuitous worst-case scenario” for study, said environmental toxicologist Greg Moller, holding a bottle of Lake Mead water he planned to take back to his lab at the University of Idaho. “You’ve got the wastewater, you’ve got the documented impact on wildlife, and you have drinking water uptake.”

What’s new in this topic is some of the effects not yet attributed to trace drugs in the water supply. Much of the focus has been on the larger critters, fish and humans, now they’re discovering that some of the building blocks of a healthy ecosystem are at risk.

Tiny zooplankton, another sentinel species, died off in the lab when they were exposed to extremely small amounts of a common drug used to treat humans suffering from internal worms and other digesting parasites.

No mention of us being targeted as a source of pharmaceuticals, but it’s only a matter of time before trace amounts of fly floatant or desiccant are found in “Catch and Release” water - we’ll have to take our turn in the docket just like the rest of the crowd.

Lake Mead is apparently the poster child for research; it has all kinds of fish to test for effects of human drug waste, but the really tasty part is that it’s the water supply for Las Vegas and the seven states south. The article suggests that outflow of water treatment plants, and the intake of water for citizens may be close together.  Because Lake Mead is only half full and shrinking continues (drought, etc) repositioning pumps is years of work and many millions of dollars.

Antidepressants are mentioned frequently - they might be “longer lived” in water - therefore more virulent. I can’t say that the casino owners would be shedding many tears - why wouldn’t I want my guests hopped up on how good they feel (as I lighten their wallets).

As a fisherman I have to agree, all I ask is that big arsed triploid get a gob full of antidepressants just as my Clouser minnow ambles by..

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