EPA Takes First Step Toward Protecting Bristol Bay, Announces Scientific Assessment of Watershed

  Anchorage - Alaska Natives, the commercial fishing industry and sportsmen applauded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement today to conduct a scientific assessment of the Bristol Bay watershed.

  "Today’s announcement from the EPA is a great first step toward protecting Bristol Bay from the dangers of Pebble Mine," said Tim Bristol, Director of Trout Unlimited’s Alaska Program. "We are pleased the EPA is doing the right thing by starting a public process and gathering scientific data about how mining would have an impact on the health and environment of Bristol Bay."

  The proposed Pebble Mine could mean the devastation of a 40,000-square-mile wetland – about the same size as Kentucky. Mining in Bristol Bay also puts at risk the world’s largest sockeye salmon run, as well as the thousands of jobs associated with this $450 million-a-year fishery.

  In 2010, nine federally-recognized Bristol Bay tribes petitioned the EPA to use its authority under the section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act to protect Bristol Bay. On Monday, the EPA responded to this request, and noted that Bristol Bay “may be the last major watershed in North America that produces historic numbers of wild salmon.” The full EPA press release is here: http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/8c1e5dd5d170ad99852578300067d3b3?OpenDocument.

  "We look forward to working with the EPA during the next several months," said Brian Kraft, the owner of the Alaska Sportsman’s Lodge and Alaska Sportsmen’s Bear Trail Lodge. "This is just the sort of science-based process we’re looking for in Alaska, to understand how we can protect Bristol Bay, the salmon population, its fishing industry and the thousands of American jobs it supports."

  Today’s announcement begins a public process to determine the effects of large-scale development in Bristol Bay, primarily in the Nushagak and Kvichak watersheds.

  The process initiates scientific review, tribal consultation, federal and state agency participation, as well as public and industry input.

  "As an Alaska Native, a commercial fisherman and a resident of the Bristol Bay region, I commend the EPA for taking this important first step in a process that will protect my family's livelihood and our way of life," said Everett Thompson, a Bristol Bay fisherman. "Today’s response is a victory for Alaskans."

  Trout Unlimited, a non-profit dedicated to the conservation of freshwater streams, rivers, and habitat for trout, salmon and other aquatic species, is working with an unprecedented coalition to protect Bristol Bay from the dangers of mining. This diverse effort brings together Native Alaskans, the commercial fishing industry, the sports fishing industry and tourism-related businesses.

  Bristol Bay is:

  * A 40,000-square mile wetland with nine major rivers.
  * Home of the world’s largest sockeye salmon run.
  * Host to one of North America’s leading king salmon populations.
  * The center of a $450 million-a-year fishing industry.
  * One of the last untouched areas on the planet.

  Pebble Mine would:

  * Create an open-pit mine up to two miles wide and 1,700 feet deep.
  * Dig an underground mine of a similar scale.
  * Dump up to 10 billion tons of perpetually toxic mine waste in the heart of the Bristol Bay watershed.
  * Be operated by and profit two foreign companies with a poor environmental record.
  * Potentially destroy salmon runs, other fishes, habitat, wildlife and the overall beauty of this productive and wild area.

  To find out more about Trout Unlimited’s efforts, see www.SaveBristolBay.org.

  For more information, contact: Lesley Rogers, (206) 334-1483 or lesleyr@strategies360.com David Shurtleff, (907) 230-2368 or DavidS@strategies.com.

  Trout Unlimited is the nation's largest coldwater conservation organization, with 140,000 members dedicated to conserving, protecting, and restoring North America's trout and salmon fisheries and their watersheds. Visit their site at www.tu.org for more information.

  As I sat in the tree stand on opening morning of the firearm season, I anxiously awaited the chance at taking a deer. I had struck a month before while muzzleloader hunting in Oklahoma but this was the peak of the rutting season and I hoped to get a shot at a nice buck. But after taking two nice bucks in back to back years of the Illinois firearm season, I knew it was only a matter of time before the “Bad Luck Monkey” once again jumped onto by back and sunk its dirt monkey paws into me. It didn’t take long for me to feel the tap of the foul creature on my shoulder.

  The stand I was hunting that morning is about 20 yards from a gap I had cut in a fence between two fields to make it easier to get from one side to the other. Since making it a couple of years ago it had became a major travel route for deer in the area. I had placed my trail camera on a tree directly in the gap three weeks earlier to get a look at what was traveling the area and couldn’t wait to get down at lunch, pull the memory card and have a look.

  As the sky grew lighter I kept glancing over to the tree holding the camera anticipating looking at the pictures of the monster bucks and huge does I knew the camera had captured on in its memory. I was looking forward to trying to match the one I would shoot to the ones on the camera.

  Official shooting time arrived and I was on high alert and eager with the prospect of the start of a new season. It was during one of my sweeps that I noticed something didn’t look right over at the gap. Upon closer inspection I put my finger on it. My camera was gone!

  Who could have stolen my camera? Who had the balls to walk to the middle of my property and steal a camera? From the beer cans and other trash I knew people had pulled into the driveway and “partied” but they had never touched anything nor did they do any damage plus I hadn’t seen any evidence of recent activity since early summer.

  Trying to stay focused on hunting I couldn’t keep my mind off the missing camera. I thought up all sorts of things including taking out an ad in the local paper thanking the low-life son-of-a-#@%&’s who trespassed on my property and stole my camera and telling them that I hoped that they rot in hell.

  A short while later I was scanning the area with my binoculars when a thought occurred to me. While hanging the camera a month earlier in Oklahoma, my buddy Robert broke the strap while he was helping me set it up. He gave me a different strap but it didn’t quite clinch like the original and that maybe it had slipped allowing the camera to fall off. I quickly glassed the area at the base of the tree. Nothing! Damn the luck!

  Again I tried to stay focused on hunting but my mind always went back to the missing camera.

  Once again looking over at the gap I noticed a large limb lying across the path way leading through the gap. I had seen it earlier that morning when I had walked in to the stand and paused to hang my scent drag line from a low hanging branch directly in front of the gap. I also recall thinking to myself that I didn’t remember any limbs lying there three weeks earlier but dismissed it with an "oh well."

  Suddenly I put two and two together and it hit me. I grabbed my binoculars and glassed the “limb” working my way down it to the base. There, four foot from the base I spotted a black strap wrapped around it. It was the camera strap!

  The limb wasn’t a limb at all. It was the whole tree! Apparently the tree had blown over at some point with my camera attached to it. All I could see was the strap and by the way the tree was laying it looked as if my camera was crushed underneath it. Damn!

  Well the mystery of the missing camera was solved. I only needed to wait until lunch time to go see what was left of it. I didn’t have to wait that long.

  About a quarter past eight a doe came across the field to my right and offered a perfect shot. I put the scope on her and pulled the trigger. I expected to knock her off her feet but she staggered down the field and finally laid down 200 yards away and only 50 feet from my parked four wheeler. While watching her, a little 4-point buck came across the field mirroring the does path. He had his head down sniffing her out.

  The little sucker bird-dogged around the whole area coming right under my stand. I contemplated taking him too but decided against it. After all it was only opening morning and I had lots of time to get a shot at his big brother.

  The buck made its way back to the middle of the field and picked up not only the does trail but my scent trail I had laid coming in with my drag-line. In the mean time the doe was still laying in the field trying to stand up every so often.

  Keeping my binoculars trained on the doe, I could see that I had hit her too far back and felt angry at myself for making a poor shot. I knew she was hurt bad and prayed that she would expire soon as it was very disheartening to see her like that. She kept trying to get up as the small buck approached but kept lying back down. Unfortunately the lay of the land didn’t offer any way to sneak around her and put her down so I waited.

  The small buck had approached to within 5 yards of her and kept looking at her, wondering why she didn’t run away. Finally somehow she found the strength to stand up and staggered off to the right toward a deep drainage ditch with the buck on her trail.

  I knew if she stumbled into the ditch there was no way she would have the strength to get out.

  Getting down I tracked to that end of the field. I was nearly there when the buck finally saw me and ran off. Listening, I heard some noise down in ditch. I found her there and put her down.

  After field dressing her and dragging her out of the ditch and over to the 4-wheeler, I found a shady spot to leave her. After propping open the cavity, I headed back to the stand and to the fallen tree with my camera.

  I lucked out as the tree had fell in a direction so the camera ended up kind of on the side and not directly under it. I unstrapped it and looked it over. No damage done. I headed back to the stand to review the memory card.

  As I climbed the ladder I glanced back down the field toward the deer and 4-wheeler. There was the 4-pointer walking over to check out the now dead doe. Unbelievable! The little guy wasn’t giving up on her. He must have been hiding in the trees watching me the whole time I was down there and waited for me to leave to make his move.

  There were a lot of deer, squirrels and of course the shaking limbs on the card. The last image was blurred as the camera captured its ride to the ground. According to the date, the tree had only fell over the day before so I hadn’t missed too much action.

  The Bad Luck Monkey had given me a reprieve of sorts. It had jumped on my back, messed up my hair, pulled my ears a little, and then jumped back off. My camera was almost destroyed and I had made a bad shot. But the camera survived and I had recovered my deer so it turned out okay. Unfortunately it jumped back on two weeks later and hung on for dear life. I missed two easy shots that weekend and the weather turned real bad the following weekend for muzzleloader season which put the end to my deer hunting season. Hopefully he’ll find a new home before next fall. Until then, Jim Bob.

  James Tucker of Ardmore pulled in a 192-pound, 1-ounce alligator gar Jan. 27 from the Red River in Love County, establishing a new state record. The record-breaking fish measured seven feet, seven and a half inches long and was an impressive three feet, three inches in girth. Tucker snagged the monstrous fish about 10 a.m. using a 65-pound test line.

  Tucker's fish broke the previous alligator gar record by more than six pounds. Sean Chatham, also from Ardmore, held the former record for a 184-pound, 3-ounce fish caught from the Red River in 2006. Alligator gar are truly unique fish and can be found in warm, sluggish rivers in the southeast quarter of the state. Alligator gars feed primarily on fish, but are known to eat ducks and other water birds.

  The second largest freshwater fish in North America, the alligator gar is second in size only to the white sturgeon. Reaching weights of up to 300 pounds, the alligator gar can stretch to lengths over nine feet.

  Historically, the alligator gar’s home range included the Mississippi River and its tributaries from the lower reaches of the Ohio and the Missouri rivers southward to the Gulf of Mexico. Today the range is significantly smaller. The fish are primarily restricted to coastal rivers, with inland populations persisting not only in Oklahoma, but also in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas.

  Female alligator gars don’t reach sexual maturity until 11 years of age, whereas males take about six years. Gar have a unique ability to use their gills or a lung-like gas bladder that enables them to come to the surface and gulp for air. Studies indicate that gizzard shad are the top food of choice when populations are present in lakes. Alligator gar also are known to eat certain sport fish as well as other gars, including their own kind. One study in Texas found they even eat coots.

  Anglers once believed that the alligator gar was a significant threat to sport fish species and often were viewed as a nuisance, but today, with better knowledge of the species’ habits and behaviors, the fish is recognized as an important part of Oklahoma’s waters.

  For a complete list of record fish and the procedures regarding certifying state record fish, consult the current "Oklahoma Fishing Guide" or log on to wildlifedepartment.com. Anglers who believe they may have hooked a record fish must weigh the fish on an Oklahoma State Department of Agriculture certified scale, and a Wildlife Department employee must verify the weight.

  To see a picture of James Tucker and his record catch, follow this link: http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/newsreleasearchive/021011/agar_record.jpg