Big Monsters in the Colorado River

There are many heroes in our line of work, whether the fishers waking up in the early morning hours to pluck the waters or the conservationists who work tirelessly to make sure that the beautiful lands of this country are healthy and taken care of, there are plenty of people doing whatever it takes to make sure we can do what we love. Some of these heroes are interested in learning new things about the waters of the world, one such person being Zeb Hogan, and his quest has brought him to the Colorado River. Hogan is famous world over for his fishing expertise.

According to this Wired article about him, “Zeb Hogan was already familiar with the legendary Mekong giant catfish. After all, he’d been studying the beasts, which grow to hundreds and hundreds of pounds, for years. But when a colleague in Thailand phoned him up in 2005 to say that fishermen had hauled a 646-pounder ashore, it seemed…unprecedented. So Hogan, a biologist at the University of Nevada, Reno, did some poking around. He found some records that showed that it was not only the biggest Mekong giant catfish, but the biggest recorded freshwater fish ever caught.”

This sent Hogan on a whirlwind tour of freshwater fish. He has become obsessed with finding the biggest freshwater fish the world has to offer, and that has brought him to the Colorado River. He is particularly interested in the Colorado River and it’s little-known giant, the Colorado pikeminnow, and has been on a quest to learn more about it. Are you familiar with the Colorado pikeminnow? What is the largest freshwater fish you’ve come across? Let us know in the comments below. 

For more details, visit our homepage at http://www.leesferryflyfishing.com.

The US Fishing Industry Adding to Economy

Despite the fishing industry currently accounting for over 90 Billion dollars annually in the United States economy, many people in the industry still believes they need to find new ways to stimulate the fishing world or it might just all sink. It isn’t the current situation of the fishing industry, but the future one that people worry about. The Hamilton Project in particular has been trying to create forums and areas for discussion on what could be done to improve the economic growth and long-term prosperity of the US Fishing Industry.

The forums were lit up with proposals from major names, including Christopher Costello, who is an economist from UC Santa Barbara and proposed an amendment to the Fishery Conservation and Management act. The change would allow more fisheries to use alternative management structures rather than keeping to a very strict system when it comes to the ecological status quo.

While seeing over one million jobs caught in this fishing industry struggle, it does seem at least for the time being that things are alright in the fishing world, and this entire plan from the Hamilton Project is simply to make sure that everything doesn’t fall apart, particularly around the ecological sustainability of the fishing industry. It does still have people worried though, as there is a potential that the sea just simply can’t handle that many fishers, and those are just the ones in the United States. We’ve already seen the Japanese, who have one of the highest fisherman populations, resort to the use of whales and dolphins for fish potential, and this is largely what concerns the US fishing industry.

Hopefully it is only a scare though, and with these prevention measures being put in place, it won’t be long before someone manages to figure out what the fishing industry can do, other than to fish less.

For more details, visit our homepage at http://www.leesferryflyfishing.com.

Source: http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/brookings-now/posts/2014/09/us-fishing-industry-contributes-nearly-90-billion-to-us-economy