Will Large Commercial Businesses End Sport Fishing Acess to Lakes and Rivers?

[smokin' Kokes]

The power companies, water companies, cities and states are spending millions on fighting invasive mussels already affecting their dams, power generation, commercial farming irrigation water and municipal water systems.
Will they end our access to lakes and rivers with our boats/trailers to prevent the further spread of invasive mussels?

What can we do to protect our fishing priviledges and public boating access?

http://www.vimeo.com/930759

http://www.vimeo.com/934806

 

[DLM]

If a mussel is attached to the outboard or other places on the exterior of your boat, how long can it live once the boat is removed from the lake? I did not see this addressed on the videos.

It woud appear to me that the main problem is vessels that remain in the water for a long period of time and are then transferred to another lake or boats that have water storage or interior wet areas that never dry out.

Very interesting videos with lots of information I was not aware of. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

 

[Ryno]

If a mussel is attached to the outboard or other places on the exterior of your boat, how long can it live once the boat is removed from the lake?

An adult can live out of water up to 30 days, but it depends on the ambient temperature. A veliger (microscopic mussel larvae) can also live up to 30 days in livewells, water lines, etc. Ryno

 

[sawdustsavage]

What we need for future generations

101hearyeWhy gamble on it. Treat your boat like your fishing life depends on it. IT DOES. These pesky little critters all but ruined lots of lakes back east. Some of our smaller lakes could be ruined in a relatively short period of time. They make Rabbits look like monks when it comes to reproducing. I would like to see boat check points at every road that crosses the state line. Much cheaper than getting rid of them once they are here. I sound like a fanatic when it comes to things that will effect my grandchildrens heritage. We have let too much of it slip by. We all need to get very vocal about these issues. Protecting wild fish, protecting public access, saving every inch of bank fishing we can. It will never be given back if we lose it. Look at Europe for an example.101101duh101 Invasive species should be delt with the same as an invaiding army. Stopped before they can do their damage.fencing

 

[skookum9]

One of the number one things that I would have liked to have seen, here in Oregon at least, is a boat cleaning station and or check point at all of our ocean access water fisheries. Since most of this stuff, if not all of it, came from the far east, it makes sense that it made its way here via the shipping channels. This means that all the major shipping waters here are likely infected already. The best way to stop the little buggers from spreading would have been to have stopped them at the source. This idea of trying to keep them out of each and every spot of water out there is an almost impossible feat. Not that I'm against the idea, it's just a practicallity thing. It would seem that it would be a lot easier to put check points at the waters that we know are already infected so that we can keep people from being able to take the unwanted little pests home with them.

And I still believe that migratory waterfowl are more of a threat than is being acknowledged. For this reason especially, I think our best bet is to figure out how to poison them with some sort of a species specific disease and plant it on them to kill them off. And yes, I know that is more easily said than done. But so is trying to monitor everybody's boat and trailer and other equipment.

 

[sawdustsavage]

invasive species

101goodpost101

I would go a step farther. I would impose a tarriff on all commercial vessels entering the state. Let them help pay for the cleanup of all these species.

 

[Full_Monte]

We might get to the point where boats are not allowed to move from one lake to another. That would be too bad. We might all have to become hitch-hiking fishermen...fishing from boats that "belong" to a lake, and taking hitch-hiker fishermen out on our boats that "belong" to our local lake.

 

[skookum9]

Sawdustsavage, I really like that idea. But then again, I've been in favor of raising tarriffs on all things for a long time. That used to be the way our government was funded, instead of income tax. And it would go a long way toward balancing out the cost of buying American first instead of the cheap import stuff.

Full_Monte, I hope we never get there. I don't see how that would be possible. There are so many lakes out there to fish. I mostly fish out of a one man pontoon boat but sometimes use either a canoe or a variation of a float tube. There is no way that anyone can have 40 or 50 boats to fish all of the individual waters that I like to fish. It's bad enough that I have to keep a bigger boat just so I can chase after koke's and silver's and maybe someday sturgeon. If it gets so far that we have to have a different boat for each water we fish then it has gotten too far.

 

[sawdustsavage]

tariffs

I agree. I think some people should lose their government jobs or and retirements for ever giving tax breaks to companies that move jobs offshore. They tell me we can't impose tariffs because that would be protectionism. I cry Bull**** to that. The reason we can't impose tariffs is quite clear to me. Tariffs would take money out of the hands of the ones that contribute the most to campaign funds. We need term limits and election reform to put the power back into the hands of the people. This world economy is great. But not for the U.S.A. If the idea is to distribute wealth then it should start at home. Make corporations pay their fair share. The oil companies are a shining example of the need for this. Theyre lobbiest have done a great job. When EXON has the most earnings of any company in history and pays 0 taxes there's something rotten in Denmark.
OK OK I know I get carried away. Its the same as I get carried away with protecting wild fish and public access. Once again it's messing with future generations heritage. I was lucky enough as to lived in a time when hard work would earn you a decent living. It's already to the point when most young families have to have two incomes to survive with a decent standard of living. I'm not talking about those that do this to support a lavish lifestyle. Not that thats bad. I'm talking about what used to be a middle class living. violin. OK I will get off my soap box and get my mind back on fishing. I Do get wound up.101hearye