MetaFilter posts tagged with fishing

Great Lakes to be filter-fed to carp

anthill — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 07:57:21 -0800

Asian Carp update: since 2003(previously), the inexorable advance of Asian Carp up the Mississippi delta has brought them to within 6 miles of Lake Michigan. These invasive "100-pound Zebra Mussels" suck rivers clean and starve native fish. Asian Carp are now 97% of the fish biomass in the Mississippi delta. The "electric fence" across the canal didn't stop them. The poisoning of the canal won't stop them. Closing the Chicago sewage canal locks is the only way to be sure. But the Army Corps of Engineers have the jurisdiction. Feel safe? If you are from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania or New York, take a minute to write your Federal representative. If the Asian Carp get into the Great Lakes, it's bye-bye Trout, Bass, Coho, Steelhead, and every fish in the $7 billion fishing industry. Now or never.

Nantucket Sleigh Ride

caddis — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:11:18 -0800

Dave Lamoureux’s kayak, named Fortitude, must be the only one in Massachusetts registered as a motor vessel. That’s because a powerboat registration is required to get a permit to fish for tuna here.... His most recent catch, on Nov. 5, was a 157-pound bluefin, a record tuna for an unassisted kayak fisherman, and a near record over all, topped only by a 183-pound halibut caught by Howard McKim, an Alaskan, in 2004.

Corey Arnold

vronsky — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:08:27 -0800

Photography of Corey Arnold: Human Animals ll Arcticness ll Fish-Work Bering Sea ll Fish-Work Norway

Aquacalypse Now

kliuless — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:43:38 -0800

The End of Fish - maybe it's finally time for an environmental accounting, cuz the 'bill' is coming due; stocks and flows, folks.

Life is beautiful. For some of us, more than others. Ah, fishing.

filthy light thief — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 16:54:43 -0800

In the early 1990s, John Lurie videotaped his vacations with William Dafoe, where they did their own comedic re-interpretation of an early-morning fishing show. From this tape (or possibly so his fishing trips could be tax write-off), Fishing with John was born. The show is a series of six episodes (segmented on YouTube), each at a different location with a different fishing friend (though Lurie's trip through the Andaman Sea with Dennis Hopper spans the last two episodes). The show, called by some fishing as performance art, is pared with a soundtrack that is a mix of sounds, part Lurie's band The Lounge Lizards (discography), part overly dramatic .. something.

It's about quality, not quantity

mudpuppie — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:52:28 -0800

For generations, anglers have performed worm grunting (a.k.a. charming, fiddling, snoring, rubbing, or calling) to entice worms out of the ground. Worm grunting even has its very own annual festival. After accompanying Grunting King Gary Revell Vanderbilt neurobiologist Kenneth Catania has explained why scraping a "stob" or twanging a pitchfork brings the worms a-callin'. His scientific, peer-reviewed findings, published in 2008, confirmed what 74-year-old Arkansas fisherman Hansell Hill done coulda told ya back in 2007. And Darwin, before him.

Neither hook, line, nor sinker

not_on_display — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:32:18 -0800

Noodling, catfisting, grabbling, graveling, hogging, dogging, gurgling, tickling, stumping: all these words mean the same thing--catching big, honkin' catfish with your bare hands!

Real men do it like this ...

dg — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 05:15:17 -0800

Real men catch fish like this.

HMS Victory Discovered

tellurian — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:59:54 -0800

World's Mightiest Ship Was Lost Without a Trace in 1744 "In July 1744, she set sail to rescue a Mediterranean convoy blockaded by the French Brest fleet in the River Tagus at Lisbon. After victoriously chasing the French fleet away, she escorted the convoy into the Mediterranean Sea as far as Gibraltar, then set sail to return to her home port in England. During the course of the voyage, her fleet captured a number of valuable prizes, and she was also reported to have taken on board a consignment of 400,000 pounds sterling for Dutch merchants. On her return trip to England, HMS Victory was lost with all hands in a violent storm on October 5, 1744." [pdf] The pdf is also interesting because it has information on how current fishing methods disturb shipwrecks, to wit:

Site 25C lies in an environmental zone that is notorious for trawler disturbance. Trawls equipped with chain mats and 'tickler' chains designed to fluidize the upper layers of sediment and drive flatfish from the seabed into a net weighing about 8,000kg, towed at about 11km per hour, may impact the same area of seabed multiple times each year, destroying 5-65% of the resident fauna and mixing the top 6cm of sediment in a single pass (Duplisea et al., 2001).

Time's Person of the Year?

gman — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 11:42:36 -0800

Celebrated Yup'ik Iron Dog snowmobiler and father of five, Todd, has had an illustrious career in the oil and fishing industries. Now that his latest aspirations have been dashed, what will this well dressed man do now? (18 links)

Guess size doesn't matter.

miss lynnster — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:49:37 -0800

Pink Barbie fishing rod hooks record-breaking 21 pound catfish.

Nitrogen: when good elements go bad

KokuRyu — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:31:49 -0800

China's Olympic beaches, choked by a plague of green algae. Sez David Suzuki: This is not an unusual occurrence, but it is a symptom of an underlying problem with potential repercussions far more serious than hampering Olympic events. The blooms -- along with a host of other problems -- are caused by excessive amounts of nitrogen from sources such as road and industrial run-off, untreated sewage, and, most of all, fossil-fuel combustion and agricultural fertilizers. Excess use of nitrogen is contributing to 400 oceanic dead zones around the globe, double the number found by the United Nations two years ago... Farmers in Iowa and across the Midwest use tons of nitrogen and phosphorous to make their cornfields more productive, which allows the farmers to take advantage of high corn prices resulting from growing demand from ethanol factories and developing countries. Rain always causes some fertilizer to run off farmland, but this summer's historic flooding caused even more runoff into rivers that flow into the Mississippi. A review of ocean data records indicates that the low-oxygen events (the so-called 'dead zones') off the Pacific Northwest coast since 2002 are unprecedented and may be linked to the stronger, persistent winds expected to occur with global warming. Oxygen-deprived water rose up from the deep ocean two years ago, cutting a deadly swath along the Pacific Northwest coast, say scientists, who watched in awe as fish fled and crabs and worms died en masse creating a rotting carpet on the sea floor. China's algae problems may be part of the so-called "rise of slime", where rising ocean temperatures and changing chemistry are causing explosions of primitive life, like algae and jellyfish. The Chosun Ilbo reports that, in August, “southern and western beaches in Korea may appear to be nearly half water and half jellyfish.” The New York Times notes pollution... reduces oxygen levels and visibility in coastal waters. While other fish die in or avoid waters with low oxygen levels, many jellyfish can thrive in them. And while most fish have to see to catch their food, jellyfish, which filter food passively from the water, can dine in total darkness. Jellyfish, relatives of the sea anemone and coral that for the most part are relatively harmless, in fact are the cockroaches of the open waters, the ultimate maritime survivors who thrive in damaged environments, and that is what they are doing.

鳥捉魚 bird catch fish

mrducts — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:11:04 -0800

For over a thousand years, fishermen all over the world have been using cormorants to help them fish in lakes and rivers. In Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, cormorant fishing on the Nagara river has continued uninterrupted for the past 1,300 years. In Guilin and Yangshuo, China, cormorant birds are famous for fishing on the shallow Lijiang River. The islands of the Beaver Island archipelago in Northern Lake Michigan host what may be the densest concentration of the big, black diving birds on the continent, an estimated 50,000 that eat about 9 million pounds of fish from the surrounding waters from spring through fall. Fishermen and tourism interests want the state and federal governments to cut the number of double-crested cormorants around the Beaver Island group by half, raising the ire of bird lovers and animal-rights activists who say the cormorants aren't at the root of the problem.

Blue Collar Babies

swift — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:59:28 -0800

Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High As summer vacation begins, 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies—more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year. Some adults dismissed the statistic as a blip. Others blamed hit movies like Juno and Knocked Up for glamorizing young unwed mothers. But principal Joseph Sullivan knows at least part of the reason there's been such a spike in teen pregnancies in this Massachusetts fishing town.

Monkeys fish.

HE Amb. T. S. L. DuVal — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:46:49 -0800

Scientists find monkeys who know how to fish. Apparently, they're not the first. Although they might be the first to do so without tools. I, for one, want some sashimi.

New Fly Fishing Podcast

james_cpi — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:58:54 -0800

With spring here, fishing seasons are opening across the country. Want to learn how to fly fish or get better at it? Tom Rosenbauer, author of many a book on the subject, now offers a weekly podcast.

Just a couple of guys hittin' the drink for fish with a couple of masks and spears

miss lynnster — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:20:03 -0800

Seventy four years ago, something happened off La Jolla Shores, California, that changed the world of ocean recreation forever. An invitation-only group of watermen, the Bottom Scratchers became the founding fathers of free diving. Although the club would eventually grow to only 20 members, the men did everything they could to grow the sport and teach others how to spear fish, keep a good spear gun or get lobsters and abalone on breath-held dives.

Life Is Sketch Comedy and God and the Bible

boost ventilator — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 11:29:23 -0800

Mr. Show skits that became reality . (Warning: mature language)

Delectable damsels scattered all over the place

fearfulsymmetry — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:05:57 -0800

"Hello, and welcome to Mainly For Men (part 1, part 2). And, as the title implies, this is a programme, fellas, just for you." Yes, everything the BBC thought the red-blooded male back in the late 1960s would be interested in (ie women, cars and shark fishing). The result was so hideous it was never broadcast until a TV Hell themed night many years later. Possibly NSFW... some brief nudity ('artistic', naturally) and mild swearing. And rampant mind-blowing sexism.

Don't be silly...money doesn't grow on trees. It comes from the sea!

Weebot — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 22:32:29 -0800

Here's an odd unforeseen consequence of the Columbian drug trade: fishermen along Nicaragua's Mosquito Coast have been been getting rich off of "white lobster"—cocaine dumped overboard by Columbian drug traffickers that, through a fortuitous arrangement of sea currents, washes ashore. Apparently, it's become a common occurrence for communities along the coast. NPR also did a story last week about it, for those who find the clip above uneasily close to a human interest story. There is also a small gallery of photos by Susan Schulman, the photojournalist who's interviewed in the first clip.

Nippertippers

anthill — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 19:50:32 -0800

Vigilante conservationists or racist thugs? Some residents of northern Ontario towns claim Torontonians without fishing licenses are poaching in public waters. Their solution? Sneak up behind the anglers and throw them (and their gear) in the lake. After a 13-year old and a 72-year old were both dunked, the most recent incident ended in a car chase that put a 23-year old in a coma. The catch? All the victims are Asian. The locals call it nipper-tipping.

Armless Hunters

dios — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 09:24:34 -0800

Armless Hunters They hunt without arms.

Taj Mahal, roots music man extraordinaire

madamjujujive — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 16:50:23 -0800

Taj Mahal (sound alert) has been delighting audiences for more than 40 years since his debut with Ry Cooder in the pacesetting Rising Sons. He's a multi-instrumentalist most noted for blues, but his life's work spans gospel, Caribbean, Hawaiian and many other genres. Much respected by fellow musicians, he's a 2-time Grammy winner and official blues artist of MA. He loves to go fishin' and if you like fishing too, you can join him on his next Taj Mahal Fishing Blues Tournament, a benefit to aid southern musicians. [more Taj music inside]

Deep Sea Fishing Photogalleries

jonson — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:07:01 -0800

As a follow up to this post, photographer & Alaskan fisherman Corey Arnold has several amazing galleries up at his personal portfolio (and yay, it's not in Flash!). Favorite galleries include Bering Sea (1 & 2), Arctic-ness & Lofoten.

Extreme aerial bowfishing!

Terminal Verbosity — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:24:07 -0800

Extreme aerial bowfishing!