Freshwater Fishing News

On August 2, 2011, U.S. District Court Judge James Redden ruled that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Service failed for the third time in ten years to produce a legal and scientifically adequate plan to protect imperiled Columbia-Snake River salmon from extinction.

Salmon habitats have been affected by operation of the federal dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers. Fishing and conservation groups, the state of Oregon, the Nez Perce Tribe, and the Spokane Tribe opposed the federal biological opinion, or BiOp, in court.

In deciding the case, the court wrote, “The history of the Federal Defendant’s lack of, or at best, marginal compliance with the procedural and substantive requirements of the ESA . . . has been laid out in prior Opinions and Orders in this case and is repeated here only where relevant.”  The court went on call the federal defendants’ plan “neither a reasonable, nor a prudent, course of action.”

“Today is a victory for the nation,” said Trip Van Noppen, President of Earthjustice, the public interest law firm that represented fishing and conservation groups in the case.  “But the work has only just begun.  In the wake of the worst recession the nation has experienced since the Great Depression, there’s a simple path forward that would create thousands of jobs for a small investment.  Taking out the four dams that strangle the lower Snake River would bring millions of dollars from restored salmon runs to communities from coastal California to Alaska and inland to Idaho.  Let’s reject the path that continues wasting money on failed salmon technical fixes and embrace a solution that could set an example for the rest of the nation.”

This is the third time Judge Redden has found a BiOp for the Columbia-Snake Basin inadequate and illegal. Today, salmon populations are critically low, lingering near just 1 percent of their historic levels.

In finding the current plan’s heavy reliance on unidentified and uncertain habitat actions illegal, the court wrote: “Coupled with the significant uncertainty surrounding the reliability of NOAA Fisheries’ habitat methodologies, the evidence that habitat actions are falling behind schedule, and that benefits are not accruing as promised, NOAA Fisheries’ approach to these issues is neither cautious nor rational.”

Among those hit hardest by the Columbia-Snake salmon crisis are commercial, sport, recreational and tribal fishermen. Repeated fishery closures and cutbacks in recent years have harmed river and coastal family businesses and livelihoods, and fishing groups have been at the forefront of this legal battle for decades.

Endangered Snake River salmon and steelhead tackle a migration like no other salmon on earth. Some swim more than 900 miles and climb almost 7,000 feet to reach their spawning grounds, scaling eight dams along the way.

source: wildsalmon.org

Fishing and hunting in the Marcellus Shale region is big business. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, more than $8.4 billion in revenue is generated each year in Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia from fishing, hunting and wildlife-related recreation.

With Marcellus Shale gas development increasing at a rapid pace and scale across northern Appalachia, fishermen, hunters, trappers and other sportsmen and women in the region have joined forces and created an alliance to urge state and federal agencies and the energy industry to protect outdoor traditions.

The Sportsmen Alliance for Marcellus Conservation (Sportsmen Alliance) is an affiliation of sportsmen and women working together to identify and mitigate the impacts of Marcellus Shale gas drilling on hunting, fishing, trapping and other outdoor sporting activities.

Members of the Sportsmen Alliance include Trout Unlimited (TU) and its Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, Mid-Atlantic and New Jersey state councils, Theodore Gordon Flyfishers, Izaak Walton League

of America and its New York and Pennsylvania state divisions, New York State Trappers Association, Quality Deer Management Association, Pennsylvania Forest Coalition and The Wildlife Society. Collectively, the Sportsmen Alliance members represent 60,000 sportsmen and women in the Marcellus Shale states.

According to a press release, the Sportsmen Alliance is not opposed to gas drilling and recognizes its potential economic and social benefits. Rather, it is concerned that the current state and local policies governing gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale do not adequately protect valuable and irreplaceable natural resources, including clean water and critical habitat for fish and wildlife.

Capt. Bob Zales, II, president of the National Association of Charterboat Operators (NACO) recently emailed a letter to charter captains encouraging comment on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) petition to ban all lead in fishing tackle.  According to Zales, the EPA was recently petitioned by the Center for Biological Diversity and four other organizations to ban all lead in fishing tackle under the Toxic Substances Control Act.

Zales, who was just voted to a three-year term on the national board of directors for the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) urged fishermen to weigh in on the potential ban on lead fishing products, which he said included lead sinkers, jigs, weighted fly line, ballast in lures, spinners, other terminal tackle and even components in reels.  “This sweeping proposal would include all tackle that contains lead, so please send your comments,” Zales said.

RFA Executive Director Jim Donofrio said there are legitimate concerns raised by the issue of lost lead-based terminal gear used by anglers, but stressed that other more reasonable approaches to minimize the introduction of lead into the marine environment should be investigated.  “Calling for a sudden and complete ban on lead fishing products seems to run well beyond the intent of the original petition,” Donofrio said, adding “the original petition was presented with the aim of reducing bird deaths caused by the ingestion of lead sinkers and jigheads, yet the best available science shows that less than 1% of all waterfowl and other are killed by lead sinker ingestion.”

A longtime waterfowler himself, Donofrio said “Banning lead in recreational fishing tackle will have a negligible impact on waterfowl populations.”

Instead of a sudden and complete ban, Donofrio hopes that national manufacturers and their associated trade groups would help defeat the proposal by offering to adopt a responsible stewardship role by committing to a gradual reduction of lead in terminal gear through the use of alternative non-toxic materials.  “Individual anglers and small business operators should not be denied access to fishing opportunities if lead-free alternatives aren’t readily available,” Donofrio said.  The RFA believes that a lead ban would unfair to the general angling public considering the lack of available alternatives and questionable science.

“At this point, the data does not support a federal ban on lead sinkers for fishing, and we support the efforts of groups like NACO and the Marine Retailers Association of America (MRAA) to have this petition quashed,” Donofrio said.  “Overarching restrictions like these need to be based on sound science, not ideological rhetoric. It’s simply more anti-fishing, anti-fisherman, doomsday protectionism in the name of loons and loony extremists,” Donofrio added.

NACO, MRAA and the RFA said that individual recreational anglers and business owners can get involved by downloading a copy of a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.  Simply print the letter, sign it, and stick it in an envelope before September 15, 2010.

“It’s a well-known fact that government officials generally don’t respond to general emails unless you have a personal email address,” Donofrio said.  “It’s been our experience here at the RFA that a full-blown printed mailing campaign lends a much greater impact in these government offices.”  He encouraged anglers to get involved by printing out letters to mail off to DC by the end of this week.

Visit www.joinrfa.org/Press/EPACOMMENTSDUE091510.pdf

Following the discovery of a Bighead Asian Carp on the wrong side of the electric barrier six miles from Lake Michigan, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) wrote to President Obama asking him to immediately appoint a federal Coordinated Response Commander for Asian carp.

The  appointment of  a Coordinated Response Commander would establish efforts to prevent the Asian carp from occupying Lake Michigan as a national priority. The commander would have the ability to coordinate the day-to-day efforts of the multiple federal, state and local agencies involved.  The letter was sent to the White House in June, 2010 and was signed by ten Senators whose states border the Great Lakes.

“Since 2003, we’ve been working at the federal level to keep this invasive species away from Lake Michigan. But the capture of a live fish on the wrong side of the electric barrier changes everything.  We have to redouble our efforts and do everything in our power to stop this invasive species from entering Lake Michigan,” said Durbin. “We have to go at this as if we were at war.  The viability of the Great Lakes is at stake.”

In the letter, Durbin and his colleagues write:

“[W]e write to you with a renewed sense of urgency, asking you to name a federal Coordinated Response Commander for Asian carp who can effectively marshal and organize these efforts to contain the spread of the carp. . . . We need the best and the brightest — scientists, engineers, and environmental experts — focused on this single goal.  That is why we are calling on you to immediately appoint a Coordinated Response Commander for Asian carp to fight this battle.  We need someone with the knowledge and skills to direct and coordinate multiple federal, state and private sector efforts.”

Durbin also discussed legislation he and Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) will introduce to require the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct an expedited study to determine how to physically separate the waterways that connect the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watersheds to prevent the passage of aquatic invasive species.  This “hydrological separation” — a complex feat of engineering — may be the best hope for a long-term solution for containing invasive species.

The bill will require that the study begin within 30 days of enactment and be completed within 18 months of enactment, with several reports due in the intervening months.  The study will examine other modes of transportation for shipping, and create engineering designs to move canal traffic from one water body to the other without transferring aquatic species, and it will detail the environmental benefits, costs and construction time estimates of each option.  It will also address flooding threats, Chicago wastewater, waterway safety operations and barge and recreational vessel traffic alternatives.