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B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Improves Habitat with long Term Advantages

Artificial Habitat Benefits Bass Fisheries

DateFriday, March 8, 2013 at 9:21AM  ActivistAngler.com

Fisheries in West Virginia and New Mexico are showcasing a new generation of manmade habitat, thanks to innovative state conservation directors in the B.A.S.S. Nation (BN).

Both Jerod Harman and Earl Conway saw the need for effective and long-lasting habitat in reservoirs that endure huge water fluctuations on a regular basis. More habitat articles at fishiding.com

“Climate change is already impacting the Southwest,” said New Mexico’s Conway. “Over-allocation of water rights and drought have drained many reservoirs in New Mexico and west Texas. Shoreline and aquatic vegetation is gone and replanting is futile when lake levels fluctuate 20 feet or so every year.

“That’s where floating islands come to the rescue.”

In West Virginia, meanwhile, the West Virginia BN has teamed with a company that makes fish habitat from recycled vinyl and reclaimed PVC to build an “oasis for bass” in Sutton Lake, according to Jerod Harman.

It consists of pea gravel, spider blocks, artificial structures fromFishiding, and vegetation growing in a 5,000-square-foot cage on a mud flat, with a creek channel nearby.

“The artificial structures attract the bass looking for a place to spawn,” Harman explained. “The pea gravel provides the correct bottom structure for bedding.

“When the young bass hatch, the artificial structures help provide a protective environment. The periphyton (mixture of algae, microbes, and bacteria that forms the base of food chain) will provide nutrients for growth, and, later on, the small bass fry can relocate to inside of the vegetation cage for protection from predators.

“This is something that I am really excited about!”

Harman added that he believes the habitat made by Dave Ewald’s Illinois company, which features vinyl strips attached to a heavy base, will greatly enhance periphyton growth, as well as provide better cover for survival of young bass than will the spider blocks alone.

“The structures are ready for installation right out of the box, and David was great to work with,” the conservation director said. “I would definitely recommend these, especially for a small group of volunteers who need to complete a larger-scale project in a limited amount of time.”

Conway and the New Mexico BN also are growing periphyton, but on floating islands instead of vinyl strips. One of those islands, complete with spawning platform, won the 2010 Berkley Conservation Award and was the first step in what the conservation director hopes will be a major habitat restoration project for Elephant Butte.

Bruce Kania’s Floating Island International, a Montana company, has provided the New Mexico BN with prototypes and expertise.

“Floating islands aren’t new,” Conway said. “They occur in nature and have a proven track record for improving water quality and enhancing fish production, but I think that we are just beginning to realize how they can add an entirely new dimension to habitat restoration options.

“My experience is that the shade and food they provide makes them better fish attractors than boat docks or tire water breaks. They are being used more often in public waters and it is just a matter of time until someone wins a major tournament or catches a monster bass off a floating island.”

(This article appeared originally in B.A.S.S. Times.)

Floating Islands Southeast is offering a free webinar

Our first Webinar for 2013, BioHaven® Floating Island Technology Overview & Update, will be Friday, March 15 at 11am EST.

This is a FREE Webinar.

This session will provide an updated, general technology overview, and will include:

  • BioHaven® Floating Islands technology (Floating Treatment Wetlands)
  • Leviathan – adding circulation to increase results
  • BioCoral – increasing surface area
  • BioSwale – “in ditch” treatment
  • Living Shoreline – alternative to conventional solutions

We recommend/encourage inviting scientists, engineers, facility/municipality managers, and anyone interested in improving water quality, creating habitat and or preserving shorelines.

More habitat articles at fishiding.com

To join this free webinar, send an email requesting “log on” information to: info@floatingislandse.com.

You can invite as many others as you like, but they must also send a request for “log on” information.  Each “log on” is unique and they will not be able to use yours.

Please note – you must have the “log on” information that is provided by the webinar software ilinc.  About 24 hours prior to the session, you will get an email from the ilinc software that will provide you with your unique “log on” information.  If you have any questions, please call us at (888) 660-3473.

For ilinc technical support, please call (800) 799-4510.

BioHaven Floating Islands

Technology Overview & Update

Free – Webinar

Friday, March 15

at 11:00am EST

Submit your request to join this free webinar to:info@floatingislandse.com

24 hours prior to the webinar, you will receive the log on information and password to join this free webinar.  For ilinc technical support, please call (800) 799-4510.

BioHaven® Floating Islands biomimic nature and provide a “concentrated wetland effect” that can help solve many environmental problems challenging our water and wildlife. Unlike natural or constructed wetlands, they can be launched in any depth of water and are unaffected by varying water levels.

Floating Island SE

(FISE) is an exclusive and licensed manufacturer of BioHaven® Floating Islands and this proprietary technology.  FISE works with universities, municipalities, government agencies, engineering firms, private parties and various environmental strategic partners to design and sell customized solutions that leverage the BioHaven® Floating Island technology.

Phone: (888) 660 3473          Website: www.floatingislandse.com          Email: info@floatingislandse.com

Volunteers complete fish cribs for Brevort Lake

MORAN, Mich. (AP) — Using volunteers, 100 cords of hardwood, more than 2,500 cement blocks and 418 Christmas trees, the Straits Area Sportsmen’s Club and Brevort Lake Association put the finishing touches on an 11-year project designed to improve fish habitat. More habitat articles at fishiding.com

“It’s been rotten this year,” SASC President Louis Colegrove told The Evening News of Sault Ste. Marie ( http://bit.ly/1055YlK ). “Real bad conditions — a lot of slush.”

Colegrove added that was especially tough on the core group of volunteers.

“Most of our guys are in their 70s and 80s,” he said, but that did not deter them from completing their task.

When the ice melts later in the spring and the final string sinks in the center of the lake — roughly defined as southwest of Davis Road — the work crews will be responsible for 209 new fish cribs.

“Brevort’s a pretty barren lake,” said Colegrove of the need for the project as large swaths of the lake bottom are comprised solely of sand with little other structure or growth.

The cribs, which stand 4- to 5- feet high, will provide long-term habitat for a variety of fish species living in the lake.

Colegrove said fisheries biologists have given varying estimates regarding the life span of the new reefs and, from that information, he believes they will last somewhere between 50 and 100 years. He also noted that remnants of some of the reefs placed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s still remain on the lake bottom to this day.

Colegrove was quick to credit Nelson Logging of Rexton and the Hiawatha National Forest Stewardship program for the 8-foot-by-8-foot sections of hard maple and birch utilized in the construction.

“That saved us a thousand dollars right there,” said Colegrove.

Maverick Construction, Inc. of St. Ignace was also a key player over the past two years, donating all of the cement blocks required to sink the cribs.

The avid angler says he is looking forward to visiting the reefs on future outings, adding that assisting fisheries biologists with various research projects on Brevort has really opened his eyes to this body of water’s potential.

“You can’t believe the fish that are in that lake,” he concluded.

Maps complete with GPS coordinates of all the new fish reefs will be available at Ace Hardware in St. Ignace and KNV Grocery in Moran.

___

Information from: The Evening News, http://www.sooeveningnews.com

Youth Anglers Help Build Largemouth Habitat

   photo

Nine young anglers from the Maryland Bass Nation helped the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) build 12 temporary spawning habitat structures for largemouth bass. DNR will put the heavy-duty, corrugate plastic structures in two Potomac River sanctuaries in March. Dozens of unique habitat models at fishiding.com

“One sanctuary had too much grass and another too little. When the aquatic vegetation is very thick, it inhibits the navigation options for adult bass. Too little grass means easy access for the predators that eat the young bass,” said Dr. Joe Love, DNR Tidal Bass Program manager. “By diversifying bass habitat with artificial structures, we can provide the fish more places to retreat to, spawn and hide.”

DNR Fisheries biologists will place the structures in Concord Cove in Chicamuxen Creek and Gumtree Cove in the Nanjemoy River.

During the largemouth bass spawning period, March 1 through June 15, these coves are off-limits to boating and fishing. These activities can cause adult fish to abandon their nests, leaving their offspring unprotected and vulnerable to predators.

DNR will survey the effectiveness of the temporary habitat structures for the next three years. If they prove to be successful, DNR will expand the use of the structures to other similar tidal coves.Posted by kking

New management plan for Southwest Pond

HAVING THEIR SAY — About two dozen people attended a public meeting in Valleyfield last week during which they were told about new fishing regulations on Southwest Pond near Greenspond. Area residents said they’re not happy with the fact the federal government drafted the new rules without consulting users of the pond.

If you want to drop a line into Southwest Pond near Greenspond this summer, you should know the rules have changed — dramatically. Dozens of unique habitat models at fishiding.com

Topics :
Fisheries and Oceans Canada , Indian Bay EcosystemSouthwest Pond , New-Wes-Valley ,Greenspond

As of June 1 of this year, anglers will only be permitted to retain two fish, regardless of species, from the pond, and they’ll have to obtain tags from Fisheries and Oceans Canada in order to do so.

For the fishers who are interested in catch-and-release, the limit will be four per season.

For the most part, federal officials said the purpose of the new regulations is to protect the salmon population in the pond. That’s what they told a group of about two dozen people who attended a public meeting in Valleyfield last week.

The news didn’t go over terribly well with some of the people in attendance. Harry Winter is the town manager for the municipality of New-Wes-Valley. He said council put a pond management program in place in 2000, and he’s not pleased to see the federal government come in and suggest it’s not working and needs to be replaced.

“It’s not good enough … to say that the management plan that we’ve got is not working?” Mr. Winter said. “Here’s a case of something not working because the federal department is not doing what’s required to implement and take care of that management plan, and I suggest if (they) do you’ll have no concerns and no complaints about the stocks in Southwest Pond.”

Mr. Winter said prior to the establishment of the management plan more than a dozen years ago, anglers could take up to 24 fish a day from the pond under provincial regulations.

When council, along with the Indian Bay Ecosystem Corporation and the federal fisheries department, decided to put a plan in place, the new rules meant anglers had to apply by bag limits that restricted them to the retention of six fish per day, or two pounds plus one fish, whichever came first.

The new rules will limit fishers to just two fish per season, regardless of species. They will also be required to obtain tags from the federal department.

Mr. Winter said while the new rules, in and of themselves, are troubling to many residents who have fished regularly on that pond for generations, what bothers him, and some other people even more is what they perceive as a failure on the part of the federal government to adequately relay to them information about the changes in a timely fashion.

“What gets to me is this was all done without them telling us anything,” said Mr. Winter. “Yes, they are now telling us what the new rules are, but we didn’t even know they were coming. There was no consultation with council, or with residents, before the rules were set in stone.”

Back in the late 1990s, some folks in New-Wes-Valley knew there was something that had to be done about the declining numbers of fish in Southwest Pond.

Protecting resources

The body of water, located off the highway that takes travellers from the main drag that is Route 320 in the direction of Greenspond, has been used for fishing by area anglers, and tourists, for generations.

But around 15 years ago, voices raised in concern for the protection of the fish stocks, and in particular the salmon known to call the pond home, began suggesting some rules needed to be put in place.

Enter the municipal council of New-Wes-Valley. It drafted and then put in place a management plan for the pond that it hoped would protect the salmon population.

“Back then, we knew something had to be done,” said Mr. Winter. “We sat down and put together a plan we believed would ensure there would always be salmon in that pond. Now, the federal government is telling us our plan is not good enough.”

“Yes, there were regulations, but they were never followed.”– Ken Hoyles, Deputy Mayor, New-Wes-Valley

Also on hand for the meeting was New-Wes-Valley Deputy Mayor Ken Hoyles. He said the concerns being raised by most people in the area do not stem from the simple idea of stock management and restrictions on the number of fish that can be retained. It’s more about ensuring everyone has enough information about the new regulations, and that the rules are properly enforced.

“Let’s do this in the proper manner,” Mr. Hoyles said. “We need to have some discussions to ensure this is the proper way to go with this, and get the basic background information, and maybe instead of two tags and game over, we might be able to put a process in place where you would have a bag limit, because I think what we’ve done here is we’ve gone from nothing to drastic. We’ve gone from no regulations to you only use two tags to catch two fish.”

Even after the management plan was put in place in 2000 by the council of that day, it was never enforced, officials said.

“You could go up there one day, catch three fish, go up the next day, catch one fish, the next day you might catch two fish,” said Mr. Hoyles. “Yes, there were regulations, but they were never followed. They were never enforced.

“They need to be enforced.”

tsaunders@ganderbeacon.ca

Twitter: @Beacon1Reporter

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