| Before We Begin
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Felt Bans in the News
The first US felt ban was proposed for Alaska in
2009 and,
after several modifications, a statewide ban on the use of felt for
recreational fishing will take effect on the 1st of January.
This regulation, implemented administratively by the Alaska
Board of Fisheries, has been planned for a couple of years so
there should be no surprise for anglers or retailers. Meanwhile, most
of the press stories about the ban are very supportive. Read More
Alaska joins Vermont
and Maryland as states with bans
already in place. As we reported last month, Missouri will have a ban
on
selected cold water fisheries before their season opening. With
legislative sessions scheduled to begin across the country in January,
it is likely that we will see additional bans debated and perhaps
adopted.
With bans spreading it
would seem logical that consumers would
be looking to purchase non-felt boots. However, the opposite seems
to be the case as reports indicate high demand for felt
soled boots.
Felt bans are one of the hottest
topics among anglers and we continue
to provide a comprehensive accounting of all felt ban proposals in the
US at US Felt Bans
Native Salmon
Returning to Famed River
Native Atlantic salmon
are once again reproducing in the wild in central New York’s renowned
Salmon River, where anglers travel from across North America and
overseas every autumn to reel in hatchery-bred Atlantics as well as
non-native chinooks, cohos, brown trout and feisty steelheads that swim
upstream from Lake Ontario.
After more than a century without a wild-breeding
population, this is the third year in a row that researchers from the
U.S. Geological Survey have found young Atlantic salmon in the river,
said USGS scientist Jim Johnson. When the young mature, eggs will be
taken from some to propagate at the USGS research lab in Cortland, he
said. Read More
A Bit of Whimsy
Here's an assortment of items that are fun and different
Check out
this neat new video game from the Field Museum of Chicago
with support from the MacArthur Foundation. This simulation game
explores the goal of preventing Asian Carp from invading the waters of
Lake Michigan. Play The Game
A new Iphone App
- IveGot1 - Identify and Report Invasive
Animals and Plants in Florida
Melodies to stop the spread of
invaders
Invasive Species Desktop Wallpaper Download
A Christmas tree made of invasive species
Whirling Disease
Discovered in Utah's Strawberry Reservoir
Most anglers and biologists feared it was inevitable that whirling
disease would find its way into Strawberry Reservoir, one of Utah’s
most important flat-water trout fisheries. That inevitability recently occurred when fish pathologists
from the Division of Wildlife Resources tested
60 kokanee salmon collected at Strawberry and found spores from the
parasite in two of them.
The good news for anglers is that,
while whirling disease is still a major concern, much has been learned
about how to counteract its effects on a fishery. The disease was first
discovered in Utah in 1991 in a private fish hatchery in Wayne
County. Read More
The Fly Fishing
Show Promotes Clean Angling
A key partnership between the Fly Fishing Show and the Clean Angling
Coalition will bring the Inspect, Clean and Dry message to the winter
show season.
The Fly Fishing Show will educate anglers at its seven show
locations across the U.S. on properly cleaning boots,
boats and other equipment that comes in contact with water by
using the Clean Angling brand and message.
“Thoroughly cleaning gear is
one of the best methods we have in preventing the spread of
harmful hitch-hiking invaders,” says Ben
Furimsky, co-director of the show.
“It's important that our industry stands together in
educating anglers on the importance of cleaning their gear,” said
Furimsky. Read More
Managing for Native Salmon or
Introduced Striped Bass?
 The California Delta
ecosystem is in
trouble. Native fish populations have declined significantly in recent
years and if the status quo is maintained, further declines are sure to
follow. The Department of Fish and Game has unveiled a
proposal
that would address predation by striped bass. Biologists from the state
and nation’s leading fishery management agencies have proposed a plan
to reduce the legal size (from 18 to 12 inches) and increase the catch
limit (from two to six) on striped bass in most areas of the Delta.
Some Bay-Delta sport-fishing groups are
up in arms about this proposal. They have launched a no-holds-barred
misinformation campaign to attack a simple, common-sense and overdue
solution to the impacts of predation by non-native striped bass on
endangered native salmon and smelt.
Read More
Michigan plans cut in Lake
Huron salmon stocking
Michigan officials
announced recently that they will reduce stocking of Chinook salmon in
Lake Huron by more than 50 percent next year, acknowledging the lake no
longer can support large numbers of the popular sport fish because of
food web changes linked to invasive foreign mussels.
"There's
simply no forage out there for the fish, no alewives. You have to face
the fact that if there's no food, the fish won't make
it." said
Ken Merckel, vice president of the Michigan Steelhead and Salmon
Fishermen's Association. Read More
State by State
Alaska
- The
ongoing fight against a northern pike invasion continues on Cheney Lake
as biologists engage in control under the winter ice.
Read More
Kansas
-
Hoping to prevent the spread of invasive species to new waters, the
Kansas Wildlife, Parks and Tourism Commission passed new regulations. Read More
Illinois
- Chautauqua National Wildlife Refuge near Havana is seeking public
comment on a proposal to allow commercial fishing to help control Asian
carp and other non-game fish in refuge waters.
Read More
Vermont
- Fear that an invasive algae species known as "rock snot"
might have contaminated a Vermont fish hatchery has prompted the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service to donate thousands of Atlantic salmon to
native American tribes in the Northeast to prevent any possible spread.
Read
More
Minnesota - Tests
have found signs of Asian carp in the Mississippi River north of a key
physical barrier keeping the invasive species of fish from spreading
into many of the state's most popular lakes.
Read
More
Louisiana -
Louisiana sightings of a new invasive species, the Tiger
prawn,
have increased dramatically during the fall shrimp season, according to
state Wildlife and Fisheries officials. Read
More
Montana
- Glacier National Park personnel performed almost 1,300 boat
inspections in 2011, the first year of the inspection
program.
Read
More
Wyoming - Wyoming
Game and Fish wants to expand its AIS program that is designed to keep
disruptive non-native species out the state's waterways. Read More
Natural toxin threatens plans
to encourage lionfish consumption
Conservationists
in St. Maarten are warning islanders not to eat lionfish after tests
found a naturally occurring toxin in the flesh of  the candy-striped
invasive
species. The findings have dealt a blow to efforts to contain the
spread of the venomous predator.
Following the lead of
other Caribbean islands, St. Maarten had hoped to promote the species
as batter-fried or grilled delectables to slow their spread. Unfortunately, officials report nearly
half of the football-sized lionfish captured in local waters were found
to have a biotoxin that can lead to ciguatera poisoning, a rarely fatal
but growing menace that has long been known in the Caribbean, South
Pacific, and warmer areas of the Indian Ocean. Read More
Are our elected
leaders committed to fighting the fight?
A couple of recent articles seriously question the commitment to
protecting against invasives and how costly that is.
In an editorial titled Congress listens to money, not
good sense the
TimesHerald.com draws a connection
between the devastating algae blooms in Lake Erie and recent
congressional action to block strict ballast water laws Read More
An AP story from Boise, Idaho takes a
close look at how environmental program budgets are being slashed,
including invasive species prevention efforts. Read More
USA Today features
invasives stories
USA Today has a huge audience and they recently featured several
articles about how invasive species impact all of us.
In an article titled Invasive species nibble away at
your wallet the paper offers a broad scale look at how
invasives are eating away at all of us.
The next day they followed with
Invasive species are a blight on U.S.
landscape with a further look at the different invaders that
having big impacts.
Potpourri
A selection of stories not
directly related to aquatic invasives.
Students in Louisana
have organized the first ever
"Nutria Rodeo" in an effort to fight this destructive invader. The idea
for a nutria rodeo was born in the nonprofit group Sassafras Louisiana,
which was founded by two classmates at South Lafourche High School.
After more than a year in the idea phase, the group received official
nonprofit status in October, with the stated mission to "bring youth
together in the restoration and preservation of Louisiana." Read
More
A herd of hungry goats is being used to tame
invading plants on a greenbelt in central Iowa. Loren Lown, a natural
resources specialist with the Polk County Conservation Board, says the
goats made a remarkable difference, as native trees, wildflowers, birds
and other creatures are again flourishing. Read
More
Wild
horses are a magnificent sight, whose appeal can scarcely be
overstated. They are, however, a non-native and invasive species in
North America. Native horses became extinct 12,000 years ago;
present-day feral horses are escapes from eur-arbian horses of the past
few centuries.
Read
More
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