Category: conservation

Striped bass and mycobacteriosis

Received this message from our good friend Ed Mitchell about a disease ravaging striped bass populations in the Chesapeake Bay. Frightening stuff. Please read:

Mike, Stripers Forever has started a drive to raise money for mycobacteriosis research. With 75 percent of the bass in the Bay now infected, myco poses a huge threat to the future of fishery. I’ve attached our press release and a brief document from the lead research guy at the Virigina Institute for Marine Science. Could you please make your angling friends aware of this drive? Its a worthy cause…tax deductable too.



FUNDING INITIATIVE FOR RESEARCH ON DEADLY STRIPED BASS DISEASE

Stripers Forever, the conservation organization advocating for responsible stewardship of wild striped bass along the Atlantic Coast, has announced an outreach initiative to raise money for research on mycobacteriosis, a deadly fish disease that is increasingly prevalent in the Chesapeake Bay where the bulk of stripers that migrate up and down the Atlantic Coast are spawned. “Myco” is believed to be nearly always fatal to infected striped bass and can create serious health problems for anglers and anyone else handling those fish before they are cooked. Fishery scientists estimate that more than 75 percent of all striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay system are infected with myco.There is at present no known cure for this insidious disease which represents a major threat to the well-being of stripers and thus the future of recreational and commercial striped bass fishing from Maine to North Carolina.

The fund raising appeal being administered by Stripers Forever is called The Mycobacteriosis Research Initiative (MRI). Donations to MRI will benefit Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), the leading authority on myco. Checks should be made payable to “VIMS Foundation” (write “For Myco Research” on the memo line) and mailed to VIMS Foundation, P.O. Box 1693, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8779. A link to a secure site for credit card donations appears along with more information about myco under featured links on the left side of the Stripers Forever home page (stripersforever.org). All contributions are tax deductible and will go into a dedicated myco research account. Visitors to the site can sign up for membership in Stripers Forever at no charge.

Here’s a fact sheet on mycobacteriosis

Bonefish & Tarpon Unlimited

logo_btu1.gifIf you’re a tarpon or bonefisherman, you’ll want to learn more about Bonefish & Tarpon Unlimited, a group doing important work with these species and whose research and activities I wholeheartedly support–and urge you to support as well.

To quote from their home page, “Bonefish & Tarpon Unlimited was developed for a simple reason – to support research, education, and conservation of bonefish and tarpon. At BTU’s inception in 1998, little data existed on bonefish and tarpon, two of the world’s most popular saltwater gamefish.

BTU is made up of recreational anglers, guides, and marine industry leaders dedicated to increasing our knowledge of bonefish and tarpon biology so we may better manage these species and ensure the fisheries for future generations.

To visit their site, click on this link: http://www.tarbone.org/

I was introduced to BTU by Aaron Adams, author of Fisherman’s Coast and most recently Fly Fisherman’s Guide to Saltwater Prey
(both of which I recommend highly), who was representing BTU at the Flyfishing Show in Somerset, NJ this past January. After listening to his persuasive discussion of BTU and their work I gave him fifty bucks, signed up as a member, and got a really neat hat with a BTU logo on it as part of the deal. Aaron’s been doing a lot of important work with BTU and if you can help him out in any way, that would be great. He has a really interesting website also that I recommend looking into:

http://www.fishermanscoast.com

It has a lot of useful and interesting information on it about: about conservation, fish habits, flies, fishing tips, as well as writings about his own fishing excursions and a frequently updated blogwhere he shares whatever thoughts are on his mind. His website is called Fisherman’s Coast, subtitled Learn to Think Like a Fish.This is something we should all learn at some time in our fishing and Aaron’s writings go a long way towards helping us.