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Fishermen on Scotland's west coast say they face being wiped out by the drastic cuts to their quotas being put forward by the European Union. Skip related content Related photos / videos EU Ban Could Sink Fishing Trade Unions say dozens of coastal communities are under threat from the proposed changes which are expected to be confirmed in Brussels. EU scientists have called for a complete ban on fishing for cod, haddock and whiting - the three main white fish stocks - because their numbers are now so low off the west coast of Scotland. And while that could drive...

When dozens of white sturgeon began washing up dead on the banks of British Columbia's Fraser River in the mid-1990s, some feared that North America's largest freshwater fish could be headed toward extinction. Once plentiful in the river, the sturgeon population had dropped below 40,000, and scientists were unable to explain the die-offs of mostly female fish. That's when an alliance of government agencies, environmentalists, aboriginal groups, and commercial and recreational fishers came together to save the sturgeon, spurring a robust recovery of the lower Fraser River population.

BUNA, Texas — A class ring lost for decades in an East Texas lake is back with its owner after turning up in a fish caught the day after Thanksgiving. Joe Richardson of Buna told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he wishes he knew "how many fish it's been in." Richardson was fishing at Lake Sam Rayburn about two weeks after his 1987 graduation from Universal Technical Institute in Houston when he lost the ring.

BUNA, Texas – The one that didn't get away held an unlikely surprise for a Texas man. The blue-stoned class ring of Joe Richardson, engraved with his name, turned up inside an 8-pound bass 21 years after he lost it while fishing on Lake Sam Rayburn. "My first reaction was — you gotta be kidding," he said Wednesday. The fisherman who discovered the tarnished ring inside his catch contacted Richardson on Nov. 28 in Buna, about 100 miles northeast of Houston, after tracking him down with help from the Internet. Richardson, 41, said he lost the ring about two weeks...

This would be a dreary day to be a fish in Lincoln Park's South Pond, what with the poison in the water and the sight of hundreds of your fish colleagues slowly floating to the surface. So if you're reading this, be thankful you're not a black crappie or a largemouth bass. But, for the sake of those that went belly up on Friday to make way for a $12 million pond restoration project, ponder for a moment this age-old question: Do fish feel pain?

Oh yeah, that's a big one. Wildlife officials in northern California last week came across one of the biggest Chinook salmon ever found in the state — a monster more than 4 feet long and weighing 85 pounds. "We see lots of big ones," Doug Killam, a biologist in the California Department of Fish and Game's Red Bluff office, told the Redding Record Searchlight, "but this one was just bigger than most big ones — it was just spectacular." The big fish had recently spawned and died, Killam said, and probably weighed about 90 pounds when it began its 100-mile...

Why you shouldn't swim in lakes in Oklahoma!!!! A very large alligator gar : the fish was caught in Broken Bow Lake, Oklahoma 8' - 10' and weighed 327 lbs This is why people just disappear from the lakes in Oklahoma! And yes, this is for real."

Letters to the Editor: In "Three questions on ballot worthy of voter support” (Our Views, Sept. 19), The Oklahoman questioned the need for State Question 742, which gives voters the choice to permanently preserve in the Oklahoma Constitution the right to hunt and fish. You suggested waiting until a crisis develops before proposing the amendment. The crisis in question here would be the imposition of hunting bans. But why should Oklahoma hunters wait? The painful experiences of hunters in Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, California and Colorado show that waiting is not a strategy; it’s tantamount to a concession of rights....

In a speech this afternoon in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Senator Barack Obama made a groundbreaking announcement: I have long been an advocate of the less fortunate among us, of those who life has handed a crooked deck, the short end of the stick, an unfair deal. There are no Americans for who this is more true than the populations of our feedlots and industrial farms. It is time to end the exploitation of farmed animals on American soil. It is time to give up hamburgers as we have given up slave-holding. It is time for us to end our dependence on...

Fishing Boat Sinks Off Alaska; 5 Killed, 2 Missing Thursday , October 23, 2008 ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Four crew members of a fishing boat were plucked alive from a life raft in frigid, stormy seas Wednesday, hours after their vessel was reported in distress, a Coast Guard spokesman says. Five crew members died, and two remained missing. A search continued for the remaining two crew members of the Katmai, a 93-foot fish processor based on Alaska's Kodiak island, Coast Guard Petty Officer Levi Read said. Read said two more deceased crew members were located Wednesday night by a fishing vessel...

There are people who'd like to blame President Bush for every problem facing us. Heck, I'll wager some would say it's his fault that the Chinese don't know how to make safe baby formula and that there's a poor crab harvest in the Chesapeake Bay. It's time our president received a bit of good news. I propose we give him a hearty pat on the back for signing an amendment to a 1995 Executive Order concerning recreational fishing. Sound ho-hum? It isn't. This historic signing guarantees that federal agencies must maintain and make available recreational fishing on federal lands and...

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America From our rugged peaks and mountains to our shining seas, our Nation is blessed with remarkable natural treasures. These magnificent landscapes are places where families and friends can create lasting memories and enjoy the outdoors. On National Hunting and Fishing Day, our country honors the many contributions of America's hunters and anglers, who add to our heritage and keep our wildlife populations healthy and strong. Our Nation's sportsmen and women are among our foremost conservationists. They care deeply about our wildlife habitats, and they have contributed billions of dollars...

Obama and McCain give interviews to Field & Stream, offering their policy views and their own outdoor credentials. Not too much news there -- both like to hike, McCain's opposed to gun control, and Obama promises to appoint an outdoors type to be Secretary of the Interior. Lots of fun detail though. "You know, when you're in the South Side of Chicago, there's not too much-too many opportunities for hunting and fishing," Obama conceded. "When I was a kid, I grew up in Hawaii, and so I would go fishing with my grandfather. And when I got older, actually, we...

Bear jumps on boat, mauls man Published Thursday September 11th, 2008 A7 By SCOTT SUTHERLAND The Canadian Press VICTORIA - Salmon fishermen are no longer throwing fish guts on shore for black bears around Port Renfrew, B.C. after one climbed onto a dock, jumped into a man's boat and mauled him. "All the bears in Port Renfrew are pretty docile," said fire Chief Dan Tennant. "They're more afraid of people than people are of them and normally turn and high-tail it when they see people.'' He said he first thought the bear attack call received by his department and an...

When I wrote the email, I was merely responding to friends and clients in the lower 48, who were asking me about Governor Sarah Palin. I really didn’t mean for this email to go round the world, but it may already have. Kathy and I are simple folks and life time Alaskans who run a lodge on the remote Alaska Peninsula. I am a bush pilot and guide for the same operation that I started as the camp boy for, back in 1966. Kathy and I both pitch in to respond to emails and inquiries about fishing and hunting with...

Fish flies out of lake, breaks Arkansas teen's jaw Sun Sep 7, 8:26 PM ET LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - It's a fishing tale that packs a wallop so strong it broke the jaw of a southeastern Arkansas teen and covered him in fish blood and guts. Seth Russell, 15, of Crossett, was cruising Lake Chicot on a large inner tube towed by a boat when a Silver Asian carp leaped from the water and smacked him in the face. Seth was knocked unconscious. "He doesn't remember anything at all," the boy's mother, Linda Russell, said last week. "He was laughing,...

A $4,950 fishing rod might sound expensive to some, but there are plenty of trout-savoring fishermen who will pay this whale of a price for one of Per Brandin's custom-made split-cane bamboo fishing rods. There are so many Brandin bamboo fishing rod fans, in fact, that there used to be a wait of seven to nine years - but now, this fishing rod craftsman has closed off the list and isn't taking any new orders.

Amid the vast volume of anti-Palin e-mails flying around at the moment, the one asserting that she once pled guilty to criminal negligence sort of sticks out, and seemed worth poking around. Alaska state records show that she was charged in June of 1993, and pled no contest, to the serious-sounding charge. Turns out that it's less a major felony, more an only-in-Alaska moment, and that — like so many of these things — it's surfaced in Palin's earlier races, notably in 2002. The details of the weighty charge: Using a drift gillnet to harvest salmon from the Bristol Bay...

Monday evening there was a meeting of district three of the Conservation Congress at the DNR Ranger Station in Tomahawk. District three of the Conservation Congress includes Vilas, Oneida, Lincoln, Marathon and Taylor counties. The meeting was the 2008 Fall Congress District meeting. Each fall the Congress meets with a variety of DNR employees to share information and prepare for the fall hunting seasons. ADVERTISEMENT Charles McCullough, who is the area wildlife biologist for the Headwaters Area, presented an update regarding the on-going two-year study of bears. This study has been mentioned several times in this space. For two years...

A Wilkes County fisherman caught a record channel catfish -- with his granddaughter's hot pink Barbie doll rod and reel. David Hayes landed the fish, which weighed 21 pounds, one ounce, on Aug. 5 in a private pond in the northwestern North Carolina county. He was fishing with his granddaughter Alyssa, 3, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission said. The fish was 2 inches longer than Alyssa's rod and reel, which measured 2 and a half feet. Hayes and his granddaughter were using black crickets as bait and fishing for bluegill when nature called for Alyssa. "After catching two or three...

26 dead, 297 injured and two left traumatised. Matt Clarke takes a look at 19 painful incidents involving fish from the depths of the news archives... We've scoured the Practical Fishkeeping news archives to dredge up some of the weird and terrifying incidents involving fish that we've covered in the past few years... Attack of the 'willy fish'The legendary candiru, or 'willy fish' as it sometimes less politely called, is known about well outside its native range in the freshwater rivers of the Amazon basin. These small catfish are parasites and normally live in the gills of very large catfishes,...

In life, he was never happier than when catching fish in his favourite river. And after his death, Pete Hodge was determined to help his fellow anglers continue to enjoy tight lines too. So much so that he arranged for his remains to be turned into bait so he could sleep with the fishes. Mr Hodge, from Puriton, near Bridgwater, Somerset, made his bizarre request after discovering he had terminal motor neurone disease. He died last month aged 61 and was cremated in a coffin made from wicker to look like a fishing basket. A friend then mixed Mr Hodge's...

  Wife lands a whopper   What a whopper ... Gill Hudspeth and her catch   By STAFF REPORTER Published: Today     A NOVICE angler is celebrating a huge haul - on her first fishing effort. Gill Hudspeth, 58, hooked a 72lb catfish the first time she fished with a rod and reel on holiday with her husband and two friends in France. Her huge haul blew her husband Maurice’s best ever catch of 42lbs straight out of the water. Mrs Hudspeth, from Wilford, Nottinghamshire, today said she had never taken up fishing, despite the fact her husband...

James Travis set his fishing line in the murky waters off Monona Terrace Convention Center Saturday morning and pulled up one blue gill after another. Some were judged too small and tossed back into Lake Monona. Others were dropped in a pail on their way to dinner table. Travis, of Madison, said he eats locally caught fish about once every other week, which would put him within the state safety guidelines for exposure to mercury through fish consumption.But a local advocacy group, Madison Environmental Justice Organization, says its newly released research found that many local shoreline anglers, especially minorities, eat...

A LARGE great white shark has been sighted in a lake on the New South Wales Central Coast, prompting warnings for people to take caution in surrounding waterways. A commercial fisherman snagged the beast this morning while casting nets off Canton Beach, on the north side of Tuggerah Lake, which opens into the Pacific Ocean at The Entrance.

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. -- About 30 fish were spotted "walking" through a Florida neighborhood, shocking homeowners who said they've never seen anything like it. IMAGES: Fish In Florida Neighborhood"I was like, 'No way there's fish in the street,'" homeowner Dianna Fernandez said. "And I kept going further and further and seeing fish everywhere -- in driveways. I've never seen anything like it." The walking catfish were spotted in the road near a Pinellas Park subdivision Tuesday. The fish used their pectoral fins to walk or shuffle around the streets. Video showed the fish moving through the neighborhood. A scientist with...

The tuna industry says climate change is bringing benefits. The chief executive of the Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna Association, Brian Jeffriess, says Port Lincoln crews in South Australia are reporting an excellent quality and size catch. He says it can be partly attributed to the effects of climate change on the waters of the Great Australian Bight. "There's no doubt climate change will bring benefits to the Great Australian Bight ecology in the sense that there's more upwellings therefore more small pelagics as we call them - sardines, mackerel, red bait, other fish - and that will bring tuna so...

With Columbia Gorge turbines pumping out extra electricity, the agency had to quickly adjust its hydro generation Columbia Basin river managers had a close call this week when they were forced to cut back on hydropower after a surge in wind energy blasted through the system. The surge forced them to spill more water over dams, risking the health of migrating fish. For the first time, it also exposed serious kinks in a plan that was supposed to deal smoothly with just such emergencies. As it turned out, the spills weren't heavy enough to harm fish. But the federal Bonneville...

Day is done... Gone the sun From the lake... From the hills... From the sky. All is well... Safely rest God is nigh. Fading light.... Dims the sight And a star.... Gems the sky.... Gleaming bright From afar.... Drawing nigh Falls the night. “TAPS“ - Major General Daniel Butterfield (www.west-point.org/taps/Taps.html ) By ****** That haunting melody never moved me as much as it did recently, at the graveside service of a man who touched my life with his humility, kindness, and a love of fishing. Delbert Lee Fellers was a man who found great pleasure in the simple things we...

Millions of anglers would need license; US seeks better data on what is reeled in | The only thing anyone's ever needed to sportfish off New England's coast is a rod, reel, and good luck. Now, the more than 2.5 million people who fish for fun here will probably need a license. The federal agency that manages fishing announced yesterday that it intends to require most saltwater anglers to register before fishing begins in 2009 and plans to start charging for the privilege by 2011. Fishery officials have grown increasingly concerned about how many fish the nation's recreational fishermen reel...

The government wants to know who's fishing for fun in federal ocean waters. Recreational anglers and spearfishers would be required to be registered... NOAA's Fisheries Service said it wants to get more accurate data on recreational fish catches. Commercial fishers already need licenses or permits and thus would not have to register again... The registry ...fishing anywhere for what are called anadromous species, such as striped bass, salmon and shad, that spawn in rivers and streams and spend their adult lives in estuaries and the ocean. Registrations will include an angler's name, address, telephone number and the regions where fishing...

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish tuna fishermen rammed their boat into a Greenpeace ship Friday and pelted it with lead fishing weights, the environmental group said. No one was injured. The fishing vessel was among several that swarmed the Arctic Sunrise, which was carrying activists campaigning against overfishing in the Mediterranean. The boat rammed the Greenpeace ship at high speed, said Yesim Aslan, a spokeswoman for the group. The barrage of lead weights damaged a helicopter that the activists had used earlier in the day to document the vessels' activities, Aslan said.

Huge halibut hooked in Norway Last Updated: 8:50PM BST 28/05/2008   A halibut thought to be the largest ever line-caught fish has been hooked by an angler in Norway. BNPS  The 31st fish has smashed the line caught record by 24 lb The 31st creature - which measures 8ft1in long - was landed by proud fisherman Soren Bec following a titanic struggle. The monster catch is believed to have beaten the previous record for a line-caught fish by 24lbs. Although halibut of up to 2.5metres (8ft2in) have been spotted in Norweigian waters, it is unusual for the fish to...

The salmon looked like shadows gliding silently beneath the surface of a pool between the foaming rapids of rugged Butte Creek. Suddenly, with a splash, a big glittering fish leaped out of the water, then another and another. The spring-run chinook were jumping this past week in the remote, forested gorge outside Chico. "This is the last best run of wild salmon in California," said Allen Harthorn, 56, the executive director of Friends of Butte Creek, who has been fighting for more than a decade to save the historic - and once sacred - spring run of chinook in this...

Australian fishermen net 500-pound squid 4 hours agoMELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian fishermen have hauled up a 20-foot-long giant squid off the country's southeastern coast.Skipper Rangi Pene said Monday that the 500-pound squid was already dead when it was caught in a trawler's nets Sunday night in waters more than 1,640 feet deep.Paul McCoy, a fisheries research biologist, said it took 10 men to lift the squid onto a stretcher and place it in a storage freezer in the city of Portland. A museum will collect it this week.McCoy said an analysis by the museum would determine the type...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq – Anglers at Forward Operating Base Kalsu now have a place to create fish stories with the grand opening of the FOB’s newly-built fishing pond May 15. The pond is 18-feet deep and naturally filled with ground water. It was stocked with more than 1,200 carp to give Kalsu’s fishermen an opportunity to catch the ‘big one.’ The fishing pond is for catch-and-release only. Staff Sgt. Justin Davis, Company A, 26th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, is an avid fresh and salt water fisherman who already has plans with his...

Editor’s Note: Today’s story comes to us from the European Fishing Tackle Trade Association. Catch and Release fishing will be banned in Switzerland from next year, it was revealed this week. And anglers in the country will have to demonstrate their expertise by taking a course on humane methods of catching fish, under new legislation outlined by the Bundesrat - the Swiss Federal Parliament. The new legislation states that fish caught should be killed immediately following their capture, with a sharp blow to the head from a blunt instrument. Under the new regulations, the use of livebait and barbed hooks...

PORT O'CONNOR, Texas (Army News Service, May 5, 2008) - More than 125 wounded Soldiers and their Families were able to forget about hospitals, doctors and physical therapy during a day of fishing, relaxation and old-fashioned Texas barbeque Saturday. About 135 local fishermen volunteered their time and boats during the second annual Warrior's Weekend to take wounded warriors from Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Walter Reed Army Medical Center in D.C., Fort Hood, Texas, and Fort Bragg, N.C., out on the Gulf of Mexico while cheering town residents greeted the six buses of troops with flags, signs, hugs...

Saturday, May 3, 2008 6:38 AM CDT Postville men arrested, charged with 27 fishing violations WEST UNION (AP) --- Three men have been arrested and charged with 27 fishing violations after using beer cans to catch trout from a northeastern Iowa creek. Authorities say an off-duty Fayette County deputy noticed suspicious fishing activity at Glovers Creek trout stream earlier this week. He called the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. DNR officials accuse the three men of illegally tying fishing lines to empty beer cans, then dragging the cans with the catch to shore. Authorities seized the trout, illegal fishing lines,...

By APRIL CASTRO Associated Press Writer AUSTIN, Texas - Texas officials told legislators Wednesday that they're investigating the possible sexual abuse of some young boys taken from a polygamist sect's ranch, as well as broken bones among other children. The disclosures are the first suggestions that anyone other than teenage girls may have been sexually or physically abused at the ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a renegade Mormon sect. In written and oral testimony provided to lawmakers Wednesday, officials with the state Department of Family and Protective Services said interviews and journal...

The owners of an Arab Jassim fish farm proudly display fish from their pond. A Task Force Marne initiative to revitalize Iraq’s fish farms is in full swing throughout the Mahmudiyah Qada. DoD photo. CAMP STRIKER — A Task Force Marne initiative to revitalize Iraq’s fish farms is in full swing in the Rakkasans’ area of operations. The 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) began a comprehensive assessment in February of hundreds of fish farms throughout the Mahmudiyah Qada.“Fish farming was one of the top three agricultural businesses in Iraq,� said Maj. Robert Bertrand, 3rd BCT, 101st...

By Ann Shibler Published: 2008-04-07 New "anti-terrorism" rules ordered up by DHS for those who fish the Great Lakes are causing a wave of dissent. While still leaving our southern border wide open, the northern border will be protected by stricter security rules heavily enforced by the DHS, particularly for those tall-tale-telling anglers. Follow this link to the original source: "Going fishing? Pack your passport" COMMENTARY: Starting with the 2008 charter fishing season on the Great Lakes, and particularly impacting Lake Erie because of its geography and popularity among anglers, fishermen will now have to have their passports or two...

This has been around for a while but is really hysterical! Enjoy a good laugh on a Friday night in FReeperville. Click here to see the video

STOWE, Vt. (AP) - Bob Shannon is an avid hunter, a fishing guide and owns a tackle shop, but he sometimes struggles to get his own son out into Vermont's woods and fields. "He'll be sitting there with the video games," Shannon said of 9-year- old Alexander. "I finally had to lay down the law last summer: 'If it's a nice day, you're outside.'" Shannon's challenge reflects a larger problem plaguing many state governments: Revenue from hunting and fishing license sales is plunging because of waning interest in the outdoors. "We're losing our rural culture," said Steve Wright, a regional...

Fishing advocate shuttles between two campuses for best fly fishing Thursday, March 27, 2008 By Nicholas Tolomeo, Tri-State Sports & News Service John Hayes/Post-Gazette Heather Seitz is a freshman from Hampton who attends Pitt-Greensburg. She also is an international fly fishing competitor.A University of Pittsburgh freshman, Heather Seitz chooses to attend classes at both the Oakland and Greensburg campuses. To most students, the Oakland campus has more to offer. But for Ms. Seitz, 19, trips to Westmoreland County present an opportunity that Oakland does not -- good fly fishing. Ms. Seitz, who competes in international fly fishing events, drives 45...

LAGOS (AFP) - Police in the northwest Nigerian state of Kebbi, home to the Argungu fishing festival, have released on bail this year's champion, arrested last week for allegedly smuggling his winning monster catch already dead into the river, a police chief said Sunday. The fishing champion, somewhat confusingly called Bello Argungu, was arrested Friday on suspicions of having smuggled a dead 65 kilogram (140 pound) fish into the river before the start of the picturesque festival. He then pulled his "catch", which drew gasps of admiration, out of the river and walked off with prizes that included a car...

TRAPS, pyrotechnics and beanbags shot at sea lions have failed to deter the annual springtime feast of threatened salmon at a northwestern US dam... The National Marine Fisheries Service authorised Oregon and Washington state officials to first attempt to catch the sea lions that arrive at the base of the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River and hold them 48 hours to see whether an aquarium, zoo or similar facility will take them. Otherwise, they could be euthanised, along with those that avoid trapping. About 60 of the California sea lions, identified by branding, scars or other markings, were deemed...

Noted outdoors writer and television personality Claude H. “Grits” Gresham Jr., who passed away at age 85 Monday after a lengthy illness, will be remembered as one of the best outdoors communicators ever. Gresham hosted The American Sportsman on ABC and Shooting Sports America on ESPN, was shooting editor of Sports Afield magazine for 26 years. He wrote eight books but might be most widely known for his role in a series of commercials for Miller Lite beer. In 2006, he received the only Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which then established, with the Professional Outdoor...

Darryl E. Owens | Sentinel Staff Writer February 28, 2008 Ray Combs thought he'd witnessed the wildest fishing action that the world had to offer. But that was before the Orlando videographer hopped a military cargo plane to Baghdad. There, as Black Hawk helicopters flew overhead, he watched soldiers cast lines into a man-made lake near where Saddam Hussein reputedly kept his harem. "I have been on boats shooting video as an 18-foot hammerhead ate a 200-pound tarpon mere feet away from me," said Combs, 32. "But . . . it doesn't compare to the surreal feeling of watching soldiers...

Contact: Lindsey M. Brothers (202) 547-4713 Armed Forces Foundation -PRESS RELEASE- Armed Forces Foundation Unveils Commemorative Military Bass Boat Boat To Be Auctioned Off At Armed Forces Foundation’s Congressional Gala In March Washington, DC (February 11, 2008) – The Armed Forces Foundation (AFF), a national nonprofit benevolent foundation under the Department of Defense’s America Supports You program, is proud to unveil its Ranger 188VX tournament-ready bass boat at ESPN’s 2008 Bassmaster Classic. The tournament will be held from February 22nd-24th on Lake Hartwell in Greenville, S.C. The boat will be auctioned March 5th, at the 4th Annual Armed Forces Foundation’s...