Category Archives: environment

Plows or Pavement, the fish don’t like either

Studying the diversity of New Zealand’s freshwater fisheries for the last 30 years suggests even the exotic locales are struggling mightily.

Overall, at a national scale, the health of fish communities declined between 1970 and 2007, especially over the last decade (2000 to 2007). The biggest decreases in the health of fish communities were in rivers in mostly pastoral (farming) or urban areas.

Farming could very well be the weapon that quashes our meager resistance to land exploitation and pollutants. Everyone understands eating  – and naturally wants to keep doing so, which puts the battle of clean water versus plentful lettuce on a unique plane – against a foe we’ve only begun to understand.

The resource-rich, food poor countries like China, Saudi Arabia, and other Middle Eastern countries are buying agrarian land in more temperate longitudes to ensure their foods supplies.

You pump their gas, and they pump your water …

Lacking water and arable land – but rich in dollars and oil, makes for a heady mixture that ensures salmonids will see no respite anytime soon – despite their out-of-the-way home…

A report in May, co-authored by international agencies estimated that nearly 2.5 million hectares (6.2 million acres) of farmland in five sub-Saharan African countries has been bought or leased since 2004: an investment of $919.98 million.

A Little Stinking toxic can dump, 100 feet from the water Africa and South America comprise the bulk of existing sales, but we’re just entering this new paradigm and have little idea how virulent the trend will become.

Cities are toxic, but we’ll continue to mitigate the obvious pollutants as we’ve been indoctrinated to their ills for the last 30 years. What city people don’t realize is that farms can be just as toxic – and have less controls or monitoring than industrial chimneys and sewage treatment plants.

Which are the Usual Suspects…

Wading through farm chemicals offered me a unique perspective of the issue, and while I still eat lettuce – there are times when I wonder which resource is the most precious.

Plows and pavement both terraform the environment into something other than native, rendering the stream less diverse than it once was, only the fellow behind the plow isn’t percieved as some sinister corporation fielding a bevy of legal firms to whitewash transgressions.

Welcome to the 800 pound gorilla in our future.

The next great freshwater gamefish, and we all get to play

At times the news seems insurmountable, searching through the Internet for fish related topics yields a flood of extinct, dying, and on-the-brink stories – interspersed with articles on how to cook what’s left.

Like most fishermen I don’t eat as much as I fish – but there’s times when I get the feeling I should eat more fish just to get my fair share of the condemned.

Instead let’s focus on what’s doing just fine, which fish are enjoying explosive growth and how advanced mathematics and supercomputers can assist you in gear selection, what flies to stock heavily, and what the future gamefish scene will look like…

The Range of the Next Great Freshwater Gamefish

Both Europe and North America are experiencing a “changing of the guard” where former indigenous species are giving ground to the Next Great Freshwater Gamefish.

The green triangles show known captures, brick red describes the areas with the highest chance of supporting a significant fishery (where they’re headed next), and as the colors fade to white – where we can expect a lesser presence.

It’s comforting to know Mother Nature will repopulate all those salmon and steelhead streams once we’ve finished cooking the last of the holdout fish. When the pristine gives ground, swarms of fish will replace trout – and the guides in Montana have little to fear, the entire Northwest is “brick red” and the Yellowstone drainage will continue as a trophy fishery long after “Old Faithful” is firing methane blanks…

Toss those silly five weights as you’ve no need of them. Watersheds that supported 14″ fish in quantity will be supporting as many fish in the 20 lb class – so start dusting off the seven’s and eight weights. Trout iron will straighten – so while you’re at it, stock up of #8’s, #6’s and above – and extra stout, in stainless and black nickel …

It’s gold – like the scarce and rarified Golden Trout, grows to enormous size like Taimen, and is a muscular brute in both fast water and slack, akin to the Mahseer – only much more plentiful and perfectly suited to most of the globe.

Behold the computer model of the spread of the next great freshwater gamefish, the Golden Bullet of the Weed Water, the Common Carp.

A little garlic and a dab of dill … but save room for the Grass Carp (the entire east coast), the Black Carp (the entire South), and our pal the Silver Carp … busy claiming whichever waterway it feels like.

… plenty for everyone, and the depth of color suggests they’re destined for naturalized citizenship, losing that silly invasive label once they outnumber everything else.

Perhaps the Pristine is only a memory as well

The all too familiar Rather than giggle about what’s on my waders you may want to test yours.

The California Department of Water Resources has been testing 100 California lakes per year for a litany of pesticides, toxins, and Mercury, and of the 152 results released to date, 86% of the lakes will get warning labels.

As we’d expect the high elevation Sierra lakes comprise the bulk of the 21 testing “clean” (less than governmental guidelines), and the balance have at least one chemical that exceeds the government’s recommended exposure.

The all too familiar, “..pregnant women and children should eat one meal per ..” label will be greeting you in the parking lot.

About one-fourth of the lakes surveyed had at least one fish species with a mercury level high enough that state health officials would consider prohibiting it for the most sensitive humans – pregnant and nursing women, women between 18 and 45 years old who might conceive and children.

Naturally anything emptying out of the lakes is similarly afflicted, ditto for everything swimming in that too. Squirting them waders with 409 might be the cleanest thing they’ve seen in awhile …

OMFG, it’s less than two weeks away

This is the weekend where you remember Opening Day is only a scant 14 days away. Tomorrow “Momma” is going to wonder why you’re mowing the lawn without her having to ask six times, why you’re suddenly attentive, and why that squeaking laundry room door suddenly claims your undivided attention.

She’ll remember as soon as your behavior changes –  and show her appreciation by leveraging the remaining thirteen days into a year’s worth of chores you failed to complete.

Secretly she’s thrilled you’ll be asking to abandon the family unit for the entire weekend – as she’s tired of your underwear in the sink, tired of your iron grip on the TV remote, and no longer considers your snores from the living room couch musical…

There’s another way to accomplish the same goal … it’s much less strenuous and keeps your dignity intact.

Take Momma, a couple sandwiches and a jug of the Good Grape ..

Here.

 

.. also here.

 

… and here.

Now yank that cork, plunk her on the tailgate, and when she’s got a firm grip on that sandwich – ask “can you have the weekend off” …

No need to thank me.

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Will the new frugality reduce the hatchery bonuses paid to anglers?

Angling FatCats supping at the Public Trough? I like the sound of it regardless of motivation, a “put-grow-and-take” fishery versus the standard watery extrusion of 10″ fish through the gauntlet of floating Cheez-it scented Powerbait.

I’ve been many kinds of fisherman throughout my career, but the portrait of the “ovulating” hatchery truck being stalked by a cadre of militant anglers – has always been offputting.

It’s the Charge of the Bucket Brigade reenacted with great violence and no quarter; a stream of pellet-fattened silver splattered from the bridge, accompanied by the snarl of offroad tires, hoots and catcalls mixed with unruly sportsmen jostling for position, and the cheese scented screams of “federales” wrested from their new home.

Planting them at the fingerling stage would end the carnage, allowing them to populate something other than the pool they’re thrust in, and might even engender hatchery fish with “stream smarts.”

With state budgets in upheaval, and wildlife agencies among the first to suffer cutbacks – it might prove to be the economical alternative.

“A put-grow-and-take program is cheaper,” Young said. “It gets fish out of the hatchery system earlier — at six months instead of 18 months — and they look better and have more of a wild-fish behavior. It only takes a year for a fingerling to reach catchable size.”

High mortality rates are an issue with fingerlings, but the mortality rate of planted fish of catchable size may rival that of fingerlings in small waterways.

The costs of hatchery fish cited by the article are fairly astounding. If I were buying them off the restaurant menu, I’d be thinking I was in rarified company ..

The agency has scrapped a program it began five years ago in which it purchased hatchery trout from Tellico Fish Farm in North Carolina to make up for the 2001 closing of Pennsylvania’s Big Spring hatchery. Tellico had charged the state an average of $1.15 per fish (last year it was $1.27) — significantly less than the $2.14 it costs to raise a trout at a Fish and Boat Commission facility. When this year’s Tellico bid came in at $3.38 per trout, the commission drew the line.

Assuming three fish to the pound, that’s a $10 meal. I’d be staring down my nose only long enough to find a wedge of lemon.

Blessed Mother of Pasteurization don’t fail me now

It's the water, that's gotta be it With the two articles sandwiched on the news page, I can’t help but wonder was there a connection. Scientists have known about the estrogen effluent story – how the sewage treatment process fails to remove hormones from reclaimed water, and fish downstream of the outflow are mostly feminine.

Now they discovered a wider issue and a second group of chemicals that block male hormones, called “androgens.” We (and the fish) are drinking a couple of fingers of female hormones with our breakfast cereal, and a couple more fingers of something that blocks whatever male hormones remain.

Nice.

… and the article next to it was the resurgence of the gay marriage issue in the legislature. I’m staying clear of the larger issue – but you have to wonder, is water fanning the flame?

It isn’t the first study to suggest that anti-androgens might be contributing to the feminization of fish. But the new research found that there are far more of these chemicals in our lakes and streams than anyone realized. And anti-androgenic chemicals in the water might affect human health as well.

I looked up the articles cited, and really wished I hadn’t …

The most prevalent source of androgen effluent is from cattle feedlots – where cattle are zapped with anabolic steroids to grow fast “double tasty” steaks.

Studies of freshwater mussels, fathead minnows, and sticklebacks, all point to the same conclusion … chemical androgyny. A study conducted in the UK, suggests it’s happening to most wild fish stocks – and nearly all  freshwater sources have tested positive to their presence.

Conclusion: The results provide a strong argument for a multi-causal aetiology of widespread feminisation of wild fish in UK Rivers involving contributions from both steroidal estrogens and xenoestrogens and from other (as yet unknown) contaminants with anti-androgenic properties. They may add further credence to the hypothesis that endocrine disrupting effects seen in wild fish and in humans are caused by similar combinations of endocrine disrupting chemical cocktails.

From a simplistic perspective, I would assume the lower river is influenced by human sources and sewage treatment, and the upper parts of the river are rural and include the rangeland necessary to grow beef.

As I feel obligated to pass on some small trace of good news, females are larger – so female tendencies might add some bulk.

We’re not going to be calling across the creek to our buddy with, “Brown? Rainbow? what was it?” – we’ll know from the shrug it was neither a wild diploid, or a farmed triploid, so it must’ve been another “Shrugploid.”

We’ll be having asterisks aplenty in the record books soon.

Before you reach for the bottled water, consider they’re just coming to awareness on some of these chemicals and that bottle may be no protection whatsoever.

Pray that pasteurization is enough to make beer safe.

Government intervention is fashionable, but rarely effective

Chinook in flight Government intervention is a popular topic in all circles of late, especially finance. Most have lost faith that governments are capable of managing anything unless some foreign army is landing on a nearby beach, and then we cheer loudly as the feds show in force.

British Columbia is responding to the threat to salmon stocks in a manner that bears close examination, as it may be one of the few examples I’ve seen of forward thinking…

BC has the double issue of a large and entrenched salmon farming industry, which has had a rocky relationship with locals for all the obvious reasons, but it also has some of the few remaining pristine stocks of wild fish, not yet mown under by development and pollution.

To balance the needs of both, the suggestion is the creation of a salmon agency with jurisdiction over all the causal agents that threaten salmon – from logging and global warming, to hatcheries and farmed fish.

The forum recommended B.C. create a water and land agency by 2012 to oversee the cumulative impact on salmon habitat of all resource activities, from traditional sectors such as logging and mining to modern threats such as run-of-the-river hydro projects. Government progress would be subject to independent, open audits.

It’s a “cradle to grave” approach that sounds like a sensible and thoughtful plan – given that threats to wild fish are many and varied. What teeth they’ll have to enforce will determine success, but it’s certainly a holistic approach that could prove better than crapping millions of fry in a dead river and calling it reborn.

Multiple jurisdictions from traditional agencies guarantee painfully slow progress on any issue, often measured in years or decades. I’d think having all of that under an umbrella agency would allow them to respond quickly to issues at a minimum.

With the miserable environmental record of my state as backdrop, I’ll keep my fingers crossed that while Arnold won’t be back, his replacement might have a model to jumpstart our failed salmon management efforts.

It’s instinctual to shudder at "feel good" product sites

It's the food of the futureManufacturers love sponsoring a “feel good” web site about product that’s made headlines in a sordid fashion, it’s all the rage. 

Then again, some companies just take their lumps;  no “LickChineseMadeToys.org” or “PeanutButterIsSafeNow.org” – those fellows buckled down and are attempting to fix their house – with us left wondering whether they were successful or not.

Our uneasiness rests with the knowledge that none of those conglomerates truly have our interests at heart, and despite all the warm colors and Mom ladling steaming dishes of yumyum to beaming children, it’s still caveat emptor.

The latest offering is SalmonFacts.org, wherein we’re regaled with the benefits and safety that’s farmed salmon; low in PCB’s, no mercury, and sea lice are yesterday’s news.

Feel the Love:

Gray flesh versus warm Pink meat: Because of its secondary effect of turning flesh colors, some have looked upon astaxanthin as a die or a color additive. It is neither. Rather, it is simply a nutrient that happens to turn ova or flesh pink. No worries.

Escapee’s: When farmed Pacific salmon escape they do not compete well in the wild and do not have a high survival rate therefore reducing the chances of competition for food and habitat. No worries.

Crap buildup and oxygen depletion: The effects of the ocean bottom begin to reverse naturally as soon as the fish are fully harvested from a site. No worries.

Digging a little deeper into the site – past all the smiling kiddies and grandmothers, yields all the really gritty stuff. Their response to “extremist” environmental groups and the NY Times, who had the audacity to spill facts on Chilean farms.

… most of which is generated by CounterPoint Strategies, one of many “pit bull” corporate image cleansers.

That’s why I’m always skeptical, peel back the warm exterior and some fellow is telling me;

Reporters are urged to consult with members of the seafood community to provide a fuller picture of the issues involved.

“Fair and unbiased” – someone that eats sunflower seeds and rock mold holding my left hand – and a Blackwater Security skinhead with a hastily typed corporate name tag, holding my right.

Free Willy IV – Willy starves to death and becomes odiferous mass on Southern California beach

willy The Sacramento Bee reports the National Marine Fisheries Service has compiled a draft “biological opinion” that may compel the California Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to change reservoir operations, improve river habitat and divert less water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The 2004 version had a similar finding and was altered by the Bush administration to show fish would not be imperiled by existing operations, and were sued successfully by environmental groups.

The judge insisted that Interior department officials had violated the Endangered Species act by modifying the report.

Fishery biologists assert that the current system, whose emphasis is on water for people, does not provide enough cold water for spawning habitat in the Sacramento river. Climate change and increased population will magnify the effect.

It’s so bad that Killer whale’s are being added to the list of impacted species, due to the absence of Pacific salmon.

The report is scheduled for public release, March 2nd – with North-South fireworks to commence shortly thereafter.