A 9-year-old angler from Tigerville, SC recently caught a brook trout that tied a 31-year-old South Carolina state record for the species.
Riley Dunn, 9, caught a 2-pound, 6.08-ounce brook trout in the North Saluda River in northern Greenville County, SC in January 2010. Since existing records must be exceeded by a minimum of 2 ounces to be supplanted in the state brookrecord book, Riley’s catch will share the top spot with a 2-pound, 6-ounce brook trout caught by L. Dean Chapman of Salem on the Chattooga River in 1979.
Riley and his father, Marcus, were fishing on the North Saluda River in South Carolina when Riley hooked the big brookie on his “secret bait”. A fourth grader at Tigerville Elementary, Riley immediately showed the fish to his father, who noticed the white tips on the fins; a tell-tale markings of a brook trout.
After returning home, Riley’s grandfather suggested they have the fish weighed. That evening they had the fish weighed on certified scales at Jordan’s Processing in Greer, which confirmed their belief that the trout might challenge the state standard.
Dan Rankin, regional fisheries biologist for the SC Department of Natural Resources (DNR) based in Clemson, SC confirmed Riley’s catch and submitted the required paperwork for final approval. Riley is currently the youngest record holder on the state’s freshwater records list.
Rankin said the North Saluda is one of more than a dozen mountain streams and rivers that receive an annual stocking of close to 30,000 brook trout, produced at the DNR’s Walhalla State Fish Hatchery in northern Oconee County. The fish are typically 9 inches long when stocked, although several hundred larger “brood” fish are released each year as well. “We have stocked quite a few that were really good-sized when they were released,” Rankin said. “This one was probably a 3-year-old fish.”
All freshwater fish records for South Carolina can be found online at http://dnr.sc.gov/fish/freshrecs/records.html. To report your record breaking catch, an Affidavit for Record Freshwater Game Fish must be completed and submitted to DNR no more than 45 days after the catch. Anglers who think they have caught a state or world record fish should take the fish as soon as possible to a set of state certified scales-such as a local grocery store scale.
Two witnesses must be present and available to sign the state affidavit form. Photos should be taken for additional documentation and steps taken to immediately preserve the fish. This can be done by wrapping the fish in a dark plastic bag and placing the fish on ice or freezing it.
Freshwater all-tackle sportfishing records are kept for 32 species: striped bass, white bass, hybrid bass, white perch, largemouth bass, spotted bass, smallmouth bass, redeye bass, bluegill (bream), shellcracker, redbreast, warmouth, flier, pumpkinseed, white crappie, black crappie, brook trout, brown trout, rainbow trout, sauger, yellow perch, walleye, chain pickerel (jackfish), redfin pike, muskellunge (muskie), blue catfish, bullhead catfish, channel catfish, flathead catfish, white catfish, mudfish (bowfin) and American shad.
Eight more white rhinoceros have been killed by poachers in the Kruger National Park, despite the deployment of high-tech equipment and extra rangers at so-called 'hot spots' within the flagship reserve.
In a written reply to a parliamentary question, Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said "eight white rhinos, two impalas and a zebra" were poached in January this year, compared to "seven white rhinos, two impalas and one kudu" during the same month the year before.
Her reply contains details of "sustainable steps taken" to curb poaching in the park. These include:
> the deployment of 58 new field rangers - taking the total number of rangers to 350 - to poaching hot spots;
> the purchase of 19 motorbikes to help with patrols;
> the acquisition of new night-vision equipment for use by crew of the SANParks Air Service unit's two helicopters; and
> the purchase of another ultra-light aircraft, bringing the total to two, for use in anti-poaching operations. The air service unit also has three fixed-wing aircraft.
Sonjica said the SA National Defence Force would take over from the SA Police Service in patrolling the park's international border with Mozambique "during the later part" of this year.
Over the past two years, the number of rhinos poached in the Kruger, and in other reserves around the country, has risen dramatically.
On January 22, Sanparks chief executive officer David Mabunda said in a statement that at least 14 rhino had been poached since the start of the year, seven in the Kruger and seven in North West.
This brought the total number of rhino killed in the past three years to 93. There had been 48 arrests made over this period.
Mabunda said at the time that plans to bring the military to patrol the Kruger's border with Mozambique were at an advanced stage.
"South Africans must realise that we are not dealing with your ordinary petty criminal here, these poachers are members of well-resourced syndicates and are also involved in chilling crimes like human trafficking, arms smuggling, prostitution and drug trafficking," he said.
Animal Rights Africa and the DA have lambasted a top official in the department of environmental affairs for suggesting that culling some of the country's elephants was "inevitable". Current Font Size:
Fundisile Mketeni, the department's deputy director-general for biodiversity and conservation, told parliament's portfolio committee on environmental affairs last week that the growing elephant population was a threat to national parks.
"The department received a report showing that the elephants were impacting negatively on plants, insects and water. It seemed inevitable that culling would become normal practice in South Africa," he said.
He said the department had not made a decision on culling and was waiting for submissions from the national parks. He was responding to DA MP Gareth Morgan's question in parliament two weeks ago about when the department would come to a decision.
Animal Rights Africa spokesman Steve Smit called Mketeni "ignorant" for considering elephant culling.
"The pronouncement on culling the elephants is premature, particularly because there is no clear data that shows culling is the best way to go. It's been proved all over the world that culling of elephants is the most cruel and unsuccessful way of managing an elephant population."
A team of scientists has discovered that the drastic decline in Arctic musk ox populations that began roughly 12,000 years ago was due to a warming climate rather than to human hunting. "This is the first study to use ancient musk ox DNA collected from across the animal's former geographic range to test for human impacts on musk ox populations," said Beth Shapiro, the Shaffer Career Development assistant professor of biology at Penn State University and one of the team's leaders.
"We found that, although human and musk ox populations overlapped in many regions across the globe, humans probably were not responsible for the decline and eventual extinction of musk oxen across much of their former range." The team's findings will be published in the early on-line edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week ending Friday 12 March. Musk oxen once were plentiful across the entire Northern Hemisphere, but they now exist almost solely in Greenland and number only about 80,000 to 125,000.
According to the researchers, musk oxen are not the only animals to suffer during the late Pleistocene Epoch. "The late Pleistocene was marked by rapid environmental change as well as the beginning of the spread of humans across the Northern Hemisphere," said Shapiro. "During that time several animals became extinct, including mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses, while others, including horses, caribou, and bison, survived into the present. The reasons for these drastically different survival patterns have been debated widely, with some scientists claiming that the extinctions were due largely to human hunting.
Musk oxen provide a unique opportunity to study this question because they suffered from a decline in their population that coincided with the Pleistocene extinctions, yet they still exist today, which allows us to compare the genetic diversity of today's individuals with those individuals that lived up to 60,000 years ago."
To conduct their research, the team collected musk ox bones and other remains from animals that lived during different times -- up to 60,000 years ago -- and from animals that lived across the species' former range. From these remains, the scientists isolated and analyzed the mitochondrial DNA, which is useful for studying ancient population dynamics due to its rapid rate of evolutionary change. The scientists also isolated and analyzed the mitochondrial DNA of musk oxen that are alive today. They then used a Bayesian statistical approach to estimate how the amount of genetic diversity of the musk oxen populations changed through time.
"Over the past decade, ancient DNA studies have matured, moving away from simply identifying animals to actually giving us insights into the population size and dynamics of animals, stretching back over the last 100,000 years," said Tom Gilbert, an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and another of the team's leaders. "Thanks to significant computational developments made by colleagues of ours, we have the fantastic opportunity to watch what happened to the ancient populations. When did they increase, or decrease, and at what rate?" he said.
Scientists believe that a reduction in genetic diversity of an animal's population can reflect a decrease in the size of the population. By estimating when the genetic diversity of musk oxen began to decline, the team was able to test whether the decline was due to the arrival of humans in a particular region or to some other effect. The scientists found that the genetic diversity of the musk ox was much higher during the Pleistocene than it is today. They also found that the genetic diversity of the species increased and decreased frequently over the past 65,000 years.
"The periods of growth and decline observed in the musk ox populations in this study are considerably different from those that have been reconstructed previously for musk oxen or for other species, such as bison and mammoths," said Shapiro. "While musk oxen experienced a significant population decline nearly 65,000 years ago, mammoths first began to decline only around 48,000 years ago. Bison populations remained stable until around 35,000 years ago -- a period during which musk ox populations actually were growing. As we get a better idea of the overall picture of megafaunal dynamics in the Arctic, it is becoming clear that each species is following its own population trajectory. This is a strong argument that it is changes in habitat that are driving these population dynamics, and not a single factor such as the introduction of human hunters."
Shapiro continued, "We know from historical data that musk oxen are sensitive to changes in the Arctic environment. While we cannot confirm exactly what climate factors are driving the changes we observe in musk oxen over the last 65,000 years, we can say with confidence that humans are not causing local extinctions. In Greenland, for example, humans and musk oxen arrived and began their expansion at the same time."
According to Gilbert, "We wonder how the current climatic instability will effect the survival of musk oxen in the near future. There's a lot in the news about the plight of polar bears, but musk ox may be similarly at risk."
Canadian MPs will be served seal meat this week in support of hunters fighting an EU ban on products from the animals.
A Liberal MP, Celine Hervieux-Payette, said Wednesday's seal meat menu in the parliamentary restaurant would allow politicians to show their backing for the annual hunt.
"All political parties will have the opportunity to demonstrate to the international community the solidarity of the Canadian parliament behind those who earn a living from the seal hunt," she said.
The EU ban on seal imports was imposed last July on the grounds that Canada's annual hunt was cruel.
The east coast seal hunt, the largest in the world, kills about 275,000 harp seals between mid-November and mid-May. The seals are either shot or hit over the head with a spiked club called a hakapik.
Animal rights groups believe the hunt is cruel, poorly monitored and provides little economic benefit. Seal hunters and Canadian authorities say it is sustainable, humane and provides income for isolated communities.
The EU ban includes processed goods derived from seals, including their skins which are used to make coats, bags and clothing, as well as meat, oil blubber, organs and seal oil, which is used in some omega-3 pills.
It exempts products derived from traditional hunts carried out by Inuit in Canada's Arctic, as well as those from Greenland, Alaska and Russia.
Canada has requested talks with the EU at the World Trade Organisation, which is the first step before launching an official trade challenge to salvage a Canadian industry valued at £6.46m in exports last year.
Last month, an offer of seal meat caught by indigenous hunters to the world's leading economic ministers at a G7 meeting in Iqaluit, 200 miles south of the Arctic circle, sparked outrage.
Arlene McCarthy, a Labour MEP who was involved in agreeing the ban, accused the Canadians of using the summit to put seal hunting back on to the agenda: "This is quite a callous way to manipulate an indigenous community which we've already given exemption to on this issue."
North Fort Myers/ Lehigh Acres- Wild hogs out of control.
In Florida alone experts estimate there are as many as one million swine in the wild- and across the country as many as six million. Local trappers are doing what they can to control the population.
North Fort Myers resident Sandy Alsop says,
"They come out at night and you can hear them especially when they're digging and digging and digging."
For months, Sandy Alsop and her neighbors have had their lawns torn up by wild hogs looking for food. Now thanks to local trappers, the pig population has been a little more under control, at least in her neighborhood. Hog experts say hunting and trapping is one of the only ways to keep the population under control because of the animal's excessive breeding. Hogs can carry disease and in a few cases have actually killed people.
Hog trapper Billy Love says,
"A lot of times I'll take the hogs and donate them to the church that's my tithe, to help people out people in need that need meat to feed their family."
For Love, trapping is not only a hobby but also a business- He says business is good.
"Sometimes I can average about 150 hogs a month."
The problem is so bad, wild hog experts say an international meeting is being held next month in Florida to discuss this world wide issue. Experts are considering dropping bait containing an oral birth control from the air to stop the breeding but admit there are still many issues to be worked out.
Burmese army units from Butheetaung and Maungdaw townships in Arakan State are reportedly capturing and killing wild elephants and illegally exporting ivory to China, according to an Arakan environmental and human rights organization.
The rounding up of wild elephants is occurring in conjunction with a search for a white elephant, say environmentalists.
Khaing Htun Lin of the Bangladesh-based Arakan Environment Preservation and Human Rights Watch told The Irrawaddy that Capt Aung Thura Heing of Light Infantry Battalion (354), Captain Hein Khant of Infantry Battalion (263) and Pe Than of the Butheetaung 5 Mile Elephant Camp have worked on the project, which began in January.
“As far as we know, more than 10 wild elephants have been captured since the beginning of this year,” said Khaing Htun Lin. “We estimate that at least 500 elephants has been caught this decade. The army cuts ivory from some elephants and, together with businessmen, it is exported to China.”
Sonny, a trader in the Arakan border area, said a kilogram of elephant ivory is worth 1,500,000 kyat (US $1,538) in market price.
“Elephant ivory is very expensive,” Sonny said. “The older the elephant the more expensive the ivory will be.”
This is the second white elephant search project. The first was in 2001.
Aung Marm Oo, the director of the Thailand-based Arakan Rivers Network (ARN), said: “The military regime has been catching elephants in Arakan State for long time, especially in the Butheetaung, Maungtaw and Yathetaung regions. It is worse now because the regime asked the army to catch elephants under the name of this white elephant search project. We don't believe the army has found any white elephants, but we are certain that it has captured wild elephants, slaughtered them and sold ivory.”
In 2004, the regime captured a white elephant from Mayu mountain in Yathetaung Township and then Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt, who is now under house arrest, built a garden on Min Dhamma hill in Insein Township in Rangoon where it was kept in a compound.
According to tradition, ancient Burmese kings believed they would become more powerful if they possessed a white elephant.
Khin Maung Kyi, an NGO worker based in Maungtaw, said two soldiers, a sergeant and a private, died after an elephant ran over them. A guide also died last week after he stepped on a land mine, he said.
“The news of the death of the sergeant and private is well-known in our area. People whispered the news,” said Khin Maung Kyi.
Environmentalists are concerned that elephants in Arakan State are in danger of extinction from hunting and also an exodus of elephants from Arakan to Bangladesh.
Khaing Duwon, the director of Thailand's Chiang Mai-based Network for Environment and Economic Development (NEED), said the capture and slaughter of wild animals could eventually damage the environment.
“Elephants particularly graze in Mayu mountain in Yathetaung,” he said. “They don't like heat so they often look for thick forests and places where they can breath air from the sea. Hunting elephants for personal interest has become a business so there is a risk of elephants in Arakan State disappearing. Forests there are also becoming drier after being cut continuously by the army.
“People know that every year catastrophes occur in the world just because they don't pay attention to and preserve the environment. The same situation happens in Burma, where we are faced with Cyclone Nargis and other natural disasters every year. We must be more careful about the environment.”
An escalating “war” over Nevada’s declining mule deer population and management of predators such as mountain lions and coyotes has top officials with the Nevada Department of Wildlife clashing with members of the commission that oversees them.
Federal wildlife officials have declined to proceed with plans to kill lions and other predators — a controversial proposal approved by the Nevada Wildlife Commission in December — because the idea is not supported by state biologists and Ken Mayer, NDOW director. The idea was pushed by two sportsmen groups which insist the state is doing too little to protect deer from predators.
After the decision by federal wildlife officials, Nevada Wildlife Commission Chairman Dr. Gerald Lent, last week announced formation of a committee to explore new ways to restore Nevada’s mule deer population, which critics say the department has failed to do.
“We’ve got a war going on,” said Cecil Fredi, president of Hunter’s Alert, one of two groups that successfully petitioned the wildlife commission to approve three predator-control projects Dec. 5. “Somebody’s got to do something.”
“The battle between biology and public input is often a sticking point,” NDOW spokesman Chris Healy said. “This conflict is not new to Nevada or other Western states.”
But U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services officials, who would be hired by the sportsman organizations to shoot and trap predators, say they will not do so without full support of Nevada officials.
“It appears that NDOW and the commission have not yet reached agreement concerning the need for, and the adequacy of the science to justify” the projects, Jeff Green, director of the western region of Wildlife Services, wrote in a Feb. 19 e-mail to Mayer and Lent.
“For us to proceed with conducting those projects while there is disagreement, and without concurrence from our primary state wildlife agency partner, would place us in an untenable position,” Green said. “We also share your desire to work within the bounds of good science.”
Lent said he and some other commissioners are “not real happy” with the decision by Wildlife Services. His new Mule Deer Restoration Committee will explore ways to increase deer populations, with possible actions including closing some areas with low deer numbers to hunting or eliminating doe hunting, Lent said.
“My plan is to listen to the people who live with the deer day to day,” Lent said, adding a new approach is “long overdue.”
“The governor gave me and our commission a direct order — that he wants something done about our declining deer numbers,” Lent said. 'Bloodthirsty' agenda
Commissioner Scott Raine, who will chair the new committee, said many factors play into the deer herd troubles but predators such as lions and coyotes are an “important component.”
Elko rancher and longtime former Republican state Assemblyman John Carpenter is on the committee.
“If you don’t get predator control you’re never going to get the mule deer population or the sage grouse back. It’s that simple,” Carpenter said. “They just don’t want to admit predators are a big factor, which I believe they are.”
Others argue that is an over simplification of a complex issue, with continuing loss of critical habitat to development, wildfire and invading cheatgrass among the primary causes of declining deer numbers.
Tina Nappe, a Reno resident who was the conservationist representative on the Nevada Wildlife Commission from 1979 to 1994, is among them. Representing the Sierra Club, Nappe in January urged Wildlife Services to reject a plan she said provided “no biological documentation of the need.”
Nappe said NDOW and the wildlife commission should never even have considered the proposals submitted by Hunter’s Alert and the Nevada Alliance 4 Wildlife. “This was without a doubt the worst proposal I’ve ever seen,” she said in a letter to federal officials. “There was no purpose except they wanted to go out and kill predators.
“The current (wildlife) commission, I would call it bloodthirsty for killing predators. The majority believes killing predators will bring back mule deer. That view is not shared by many sportsmen.”
Among them is Mike McBeath, a sportsmen representative on the commission who was on the losing end of the 5-4 vote to approve the predator-control projects. McBeath said while predator control should play a part where it is scientifically justified, the commission is overemphasizing that solution. Commissioners should rely on the expertise of department biologists, McBeath said.
“The history of this commission is to focus on predators and they’re doing it in a way I just can’t support,” McBeath said. “They’ve gone outside their scope of power.”
In a Feb. 4 letter to Gov. Jim Gibbons, McBeath said he has “sincere concerns” some fellow commissioners are seeking to have Mayer dismissed as NDOW director because he opposes the proposals.
Among McBeath’s concerns are that approval of such projects could provide political ammunition to environmental groups and other critics, resulting in lawsuits or petition drives that could impair the state’s ability to control predators such as mountain lions.
Approving such proposals by sportsmen groups “with no backing of NDOW because there is no biological support for the project, will be spun by environmental groups and others as nothing more than the indiscriminate killing of predators,” McBeath wrote Gibbons. “This will give this commission, NDOW, Nevada and you a huge black eye in the eyes of the public.”
As an alternative, NDOW biologists proposed other efforts such as killing mountain lions and coyotes threatening a relatively small deer herd in the Simpson Park Mountains in Lander and Eureka counties. The commission rejected that proposal in favor of the sportsmen groups’ larger plans. Problem widespread
Tony Wasley, NDOW mule deer specialist, said controlling predators won’t stop the disappearance of the sagebrush-covered terrain that deer depend on in Nevada and much of the West.
“We’re talking about a landscape-scale phenomenon here,” Wasley said. “The population is limited by habitat.”
Where there is insufficient habitat, “all the predator control in the world won’t result in any benefit,” Wasley said.
Raine said the situation has him frustrated by what he views as an “agenda not to cooperate” with commissioners by top NDOW officials.
“Science is being used as an excuse for what the administration is doing and it’s not good science either,” Raine said. “I wish we could come to some sort of agreement but that’s not the way it seems to be headed.”
SANDPOINT — Wolves kill elk, many wolves kill many elk and the more wolves in Idaho, the more its elk herds will suffer. The math according to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is being disputed by the environmental groups in media campaigns, which the foundation has targeted as false.
“The theory that wolves haven’t had a significant adverse impact on some elk populations is not accurate,” David Allen, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation president and CEO said in a press release.
Campaigns by groups including Defenders of Wildlife target wolf hunting as a misguided step to managing wolves and have used bad science in their quest to overturn an earlier federal decision to take wolves off the endangered list, according to the foundation.
“Every wildlife conservation agency, both state and federal, working at ground zero of wolf restoration — Idaho, Montana and Wyoming — has abundant data to demonstrate how undermanaged wolf populations can compromise local elk herds and local livestock production,” Allen said. “There’s just no dispute, and emotion-over-science is not the way to professionally manage wildlife.”
The elk foundation supports state-regulated wolf management that includes hunting, while Defenders of Wildlife and 12 other groups want to see wolf management returned to the federal government.
The groups argue that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated federal law when it delisted wolves in the northern Rockies last year, paving the way for state management.
In Idaho, the state set a hunt quota of 220 wolves and hunters have until March 31 to fill their tags. So far, 165 wolves have been taken, according to Idaho Fish and Game.
The quota could stymie wolf restoration, according to Defenders of Wildlife.
“Idaho hosts the core of the region’s wolf population with approximately 1,000 wolves,” Suzanne Stone, Defenders of Wildlife’s northern Rockies representative said in Defenders Magazine. “By wiping out 220 wolves, the state is taking the first step toward crippling the regional wolf population.”
Killing that many wolves could isolate packs and put wolves at risk of inbreeding and disease, she said, further reducing wolf numbers and the role they play in the wild.
The government’s recovery goals for wolves in the Rockies was 30 breeding pairs and at least 300 wolves for three consecutive years. The goal was attained in 2002 when efforts began to remove the species from the endangered list.
The small population doesn’t support removing wolves from the endangered list, Stone said.
“No other endangered species has ever been delisted at such a low population level and then immediately hunted to even lower unsustainable levels,” she said. “This clearly is not responsible wolf management.”
Former Fish and Game commissioner Nancy Hadley of Sandpoint said the elk foundation’s stance was realistic, as it called for continued wolf management at a state level.
“It’s a huge debate,” Hadley, who spent eight years as a state game commissioner, said. “Managing wildlife is essential in today’s world where we are dealing with wildlife, people and limited habitat and they all have to be balanced.”
At a deserted Everglades hunting camp, Shawn Meiman creeps along a weathered boardwalk, armed with a revolver loaded with shotgun shells — powerful enough to kill something big, with a wide enough spray to allow for less-than-pinpoint accuracy.
Monday was the first day of Florida's hunting season for Burmese pythons, as the state attempts to enlist experienced hunters in fighting the huge, non-native snakes. Since the mid-1990s, Burmese pythons have infested the South Florida wilderness, consuming mammals, birds and other wildlife and competing with top predators such as alligators.
Meiman, 42, is just the sort of person the state is counting on. A fifth-generation Floridian, he runs airboat tours in the Everglades and can navigate airboat trails through featureless sawgrass without a map. He is an experienced hunter, having killed alligators in the Everglades and Cape buffalo in Tanzania. He cares about the Everglades and wants to protect it.
"You have a place that you love and you have these invasive snakes threatening it," he said. "This is going to be a big project for the state of Florida and the Gladesmen to get the snakes out of here."
The state hunt runs through April 17 in parts of the Everglades open to hunting in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, including the Everglades and Francis S. Taylor, Holey Land and Rotenberger wildlife management areas. It is open to anyone with a hunting license who pays a $26 fee.
Heading out in mid-morning from a boat ramp off Alligator Alley, Meiman runs his airboat at 40 mph through corridors of sawgrass carpeted with emerald-green lily pads, his engine flushing great blue herons, wood storks and other wading birds. He stops at Cross Roads camp, a ramshackle hunting camp built on a tree island and begins to hunt.
At this time of year, he said, when the weather is relatively cool, pythons will be in the open, absorbing heat from the sun. He walks slowly along the banks of the tree island, squeezing past brush and getting his rubber boots wet but sees nothing but birds.
Although he checks another hunting camp and scopes out the mud flats where alligators sun themselves, he saw no pythons Monday. But he said he'll be back.
No one knows how many hunters are heading out because pre-registration is not required, but there are reports of people flying in from out of state to participate, said Gabriella Ferraro, spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. As of mid-afternoon Monday, she said she had received no reports of any snakes caught, although hunters have 36 hours to report them.
Even with experienced hunters, it is extremely difficult to find the well-camouflaged predators in the largest American wilderness east of the Mississippi.
Asked whether the campaign could make any dent in a population that is known to be breeding, Ferraro said it could at least reduce the problem or prevent it from getting worse.
"If a couple of dozen females are pulled out of there," she said, "that would be snakes that won't be laying eggs."
Linda Friar, spokeswoman for Everglades National Park, said the hunt is worthwhile, despite the difficulty of finding the snakes. "We think it's a really good thing," she said. "The more people who remove them from public lands, the better."
The center of the python infestation is thought to be Everglades National Park, where 1,334 pythons have been removed through 2009. But as a national park, the park does not allow hunting, relying instead on staff and a few select volunteers to catch the snakes.
The biggest killer of pythons in the past few months probably has been the cold weather, although biologists say many pythons were able to wedge themselves into places of safety and wait out the cold.
Although python meat is edible, the state advises against eating it because pythons from the Everglades are likely to contain high levels of mercury. The hides have value, being used in the manner of alligator hides to make shoes, handbags and wallets.
All American Gator Products of Hallandale Beach is prepared to process pythons into consumer products. Brian Wood, the company's president, said none had come in so far, and he expects the weekend to be the time that hunters are out there finding pythons.
Since the state last year allowed hunters to kill pythons during regular hunting seasons, he said he's processed three into products, including a $900 pair of pants.
A SPEARFISHER is lucky to be alive after being impaled by a spear in a freak boating accident.
The man was shot in the stomach and had a spear “protruding about 5cm from his abdomen” when paramedics and firefighters raced to Yorkeys Knob boat ramp about 3.20pm on Saturday.
"The whole piece was still in him," a witness told The Cairns Post.
"He was in a lot of pain but still conscious. He had his wetsuit peeled off to the waist and it looked like the spear might have gone right through him."
Ambulance officers called for help from firefighters with specialist cutting equipment but decided the spear did not need to be cut after assessing the man’s injuries at the boat ramp.
A fire spokesman said the injured spearfisher was put on a stretcher sitting up, with his knees up and the spear still lodged in him.
He was taken to Cairns Base Hospital, where he was in a stable condition yesterday.
The man, in his 20s, is believed to have been involved in an accident on board the boat, rather than in the water, during a fishing trip with mates off Cairns.
Police said there were no suspicious circumstances.
An emergency services officer said the spearfisher had been extremely lucky.
"He was pretty tough throughout it all (but) he was lucky it didn’t go anywhere else, that it didn’t get his spine," the officer said.
"It’s not the kind of thing you usually see."
There also was a crowd of worried onlookers on hand at the boat ramp when the injured man was brought in.
Rivers offer anglers a chance to fish from shore or from a boat and when the temperatures push the 35-degree mark, the action often spikes upward.
Steelheads are in the rivers and fresh fish will continue moving in over the next month. Many of the area’s streams offer adequate public access which means there is no reason not to venture out and do battle with a steelhead.
On the cold days, it’s difficult to beat a bobber set-up. With a bobber rig you can place the bait in their face and after repeated casts often draw an angry strike. When using a bobber the key is using just enough split shot to tick the bottom but not to drag.
Popular baits include wigglers, wax worms, a small sac of eggs or one of my favorites: the Trout Treats from Stopper Lures or Trout Beads from troutbeads.com.
Both are becoming very popular where live bait is not legal. Trout Treats come as singles or as a cluster and all are scented with anise. Trout Beads come in four colors that are very close to the real deal.
Many rigs are used, including the popular three-way swivel, the slinky rig or a barrel swivel.
From the barrel swivel, two lines are attached. One leader might be 2 feet long and the other closer to 1 foot. The long leader has the split shot attached and the shorter has the spawn bags, egg or trout treats.
The three-way rig uses a three-way swivel and you have a dropper line with some weight and a second line with your bait. The slinky rig is similar except that a piece of parachute cord is pulled over the split shots and is less prone to snags.
The key is keeping the bait moving.
Raise and lower your rod tip as you follow the current. Your rig will bounce softly along the bottom. You will get snagged and hopefully you will lose only the split shots. Some anglers like adding a piece of bright colored yarn or tinsel.
Fish sit in the holes between their runs upstream. This is where the boat angler does well with plugs.
The drop back method made famous by Emil Dean is a fun method to use. Work a hole for 5 to 15 minutes and move on to the next hole. Plug anglers use Hot-n-Tots, Flatfish and Heddon Tadpolly the most.
I like the drop back method. The strikes are brutal and I have seen rods shatter.
An effective angler is a working angler, and by this I mean always searching out fresh water.
Letting more line out, repositioning the boat and changing plugs takes time and patience.
Good color choices include gold and silver. A splash of red often draws a nasty response.
Each season more anglers are trying spinners with good success. Do-It Molds makes molds spinners and carries all of the extras to personalize spinners for the conditions.
A weighted spinner works the best and the easiest way to do it is with weighted beads.
Spinners rate tops for me because I get bored standing in one spot watching a bobber or rolling a bag. Manufactured spinners from Mepps and Blue Fox are used as well.
Spawn might produce the most hits, but spinners produce the most landed fish in my experience. Covering water and being able to work a log jam from different angles are a couple perks of spinners.
Good local streams include the Rabbit River in Hamilton near New Richmond; the Kalamazoo River from the dam in Allegan to the pier; Swan Creek in Allegan County; the Grand River from Grand Rapids down to Grand Haven; the Muskegon River from Newaygo to the US 31 overpass near Muskegon; and the piers from South Haven to Muskegon and each port in between.
Women from all around the country can learn fishing skills the "No Yelling" way in Naples, FL March 19-21. Seminars provided by "Ladies, Let's Go Fishing!" and fees are affordable. An optional fishing trip is offered the last day of this exciting weekend seminar. Great for building confidence.
Naples, FL, March 08, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Women of all angling abilities can learn or fine-tune fishing skills at the award winning "Ladies, Let’s Go Fishing!"® seminar, March 19-21, 2010 in Naples, FL. Held in conjunction with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), the program will offer a weekend of educational fishing activities at the Naples Harbour Yacht Club, with hotel accommodations at the quaint Lemon Tree Inn. The program has rolled back prices with a $99 early entry discount for reservations extended to March 12.
The seminar will kick off with the Harbour Financial networking happy hour at the beautiful Naples Harbor Yacht Club on Friday evening, March 19, from 6-8 pm. The classroom portion starts at 8:00 am on Saturday, March 20, where fishing techniques will be taught at beginner and intermediate/advanced levels in the morning. Fishing topics and speakers will be Capt. Dave Spitnale/Rod and Reel Basics, Capt. Jon Fetter/Inshore, Capt. Will Geraghty/Offshore-Bottom and Capt. Roan Zumfelde/Fly Fishing. After lunch, the women will participate in several "hands-on" fishing stations, such as conservation techniques, spin casting, net casting, landing and releasing, trailer backing, fly casting, knot tying, gaffing grapefruits, boat handling and reeling against pressure, until 4:30 pm. On Sunday, March 21, participants have the option to practice their newly learned skills from either a bay/backcountry or group boat, followed by a fillet demonstration.
Year after year, participants praise the program and share the experience with fellow female anglers. "Being able to pick, choose, and move between skill stations was terrific! I loved the flexibility," commented Mary Hackney, Naples, FL. Cindy Tutino, Naples FL added, "It’s incredible how much I learn each time I go through this seminar! When I thought I was pretty good at fishing, I found out I can learn a whole lot more!"
Featured on national network television and more, the series is held in conjunction with the FWC through the Sport Fish Restoration Program, with major partners such as Ranger, BoatU.S. ANGLER Insurance, Gulfstream Int’l Airlines, Minn Kota, Humminbird and Magic Tilt Trailers. There will be opportunities for local businesses and area anglers to take an active role in the seminar.
Early registration is just $99 when made by March 12, then $125 the week of the event and $145 for walk-ins. Registration includes instruction, use of equipment, hands-on training, networking reception, silent auction, meals, goody bags and more. The Sunday Fishing Adventure, with tackle and bait provided, is additional. Graduates are invited to join the LLGF Naples Chapter, offering monthly meetings, networking and fishing opportunities.
The beautiful Naples Harbour Yacht Club is located at 475 North Road, Naples, FL 33104; www.ycoa.com. The host hotel is the quaint Lemon Tree Inn, located at 250 9th St. S., Naples, FL 34102. To book please call 1-888-800-LEMO (5366) or email innmanager@hotmail.com;www.lemontreeinn.com. A second host hotel is Marriott Fairfield Inn & Suites, phone 239-261-3500. Overnight hotel rates are $129-149 per night, offered at a good value for Naples in season. In addition to the Naples workshop, the 2010 schedule includes additional workshops: April 23-25, Stuart; June 11-13, Fort Lauderdale and Nov. 12-14, Islamorada. Contact: phone (954) 475-9068; email info@ladiesletsgofishing.com; website www.ladiesletsgofishing.com.
ONE man has drowned and another man was saved during a fishing accident yesterday at Arthur River.
A 63-year-old male drowned near Couta Rocks yesterday when the boat he was in was swamped by a wave.
The two men had gone to check rock lobster pots early yesterday morning when they came into difficulty and ended up in the sea.
The surviving man was rescued when he was picked up by another vessel.
He was taken to the Smithton Hospital and was reported to be in a stable condition.
No further details were available about the incident last night and inquiries are continuing.
The weather bureau issued a coastal waters wind warning for Tasmania yesterday afternoon and a gale warning for the far North- West Coast and North.
The low-pressure system that brought ferocious weather to Melbourne on Saturday is moving south and should pass near the state's west today.
Under the gale warning, the bureau said the coastline from Sandy Cape, just south of Couta Rocks, around to the northern tip of Flinders Island, could expect north-easterly and south- easterly winds up to 35 knots early this morning.
The bureau said winds would ease to 15 to 25 knots later in the morning with seas 1.5 to 2.5 metres.
I’ll say one thing for the Humane Society of the United States: These guys are everywhere. You can’t turn on Fox News without seeing their ads with the adorable cats and dogs locked in cages at animal shelters, their sad eyes pleading for your $19 per month. It’s a compelling pitch—puppies are popular—but this “Humane Society” is five times more likely to fund an executive’s retirement fund than a hands-on pet shelter.
Numbers don’t lie: HSUS’s 2008 tax return shows $450,000 for hands-on shelters, and $2.5 million for pensions.
This means two things. First, the save-the-chickens movement insiders in HSUS’s top ranks plan to be hassling you long enough to retire on their laurels. And second, they’re getting cocky.
HSUS president Wayne Pacelle and his vegan cabal surely understand that Americans wouldn’t be so eager to donate $100 million every year if they understood the group’s real agenda.
I don’t know about you, but if I donated money to help some puppies find a new home, I’d be pretty ticked off to learn that I was actually bankrolling a lobby that wants to put ranchers and medical researchers out of business, ban hunting and fishing, and give hogs the legal right to sue farmers.
HSUS even had the nerve to beg for money to save animals displaced by the Haitian earthquake disaster. Personally, I believe saving human lives should come before saving dogs and cats. This might be controversial inside the animal rights industry, but there it is.
But that’s not the truly offensive part. Some of HSUS’s Haiti-related fundraising efforts were works of fiction.
Shortly after the quake, Lloyd Brown from Dade County, Florida, deployed to Haiti with HSUS’s own international arm, Humane Society International. He told a horse enthusiast magazine that his team determined nothing could be done to help animals there.
Even some hard-core vegan activists are fingering HSUS. One, who works for a PETA-style group called Friends of Animals, denounced HSUS for running “misleading campaigns with exaggerated figures.”
We’re accustomed to hearing this sort of condemnation directed at PETA and its band of wide-eyed weirdos, but HSUS is every bit as dangerous. Maybe more so.
Sure, PETA openly supports the ugly underbelly of the animal rights industry. But when PETA leaders and Animal Liberation Front radicals get tired of wearing ski masks and promoting arson, some of them settle down with cushy desk jobs at HSUS.
Wonder who’s leading HSUS’s shareholder activism program? Former PETA shareholder campaign manager Matthew Prescott.
And consider the case of attorney Leana Stormont, also formerly with PETA, who was subpoenaed in January by a federal grand jury to testify regarding a 2004 Animal Liberation Front assault on a research lab at the University of Iowa. The attack caused about $450,000 in damage. One activist has already been convicted on terrorism charges.
Now she’s an HSUS attorney, busily trying to sue egg farmers back to the Stone Age.
There’s more beneath the surface, but here’s the bottom line: HSUS does not exist to help abandoned pets, and its donors are slowly but surely getting the joke. Radical extremism is alive and well in America—and some of the ringleaders wear suits.
Richard Berman is president of Berman & Co., a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm.
