Take Back The MDC
A Gathering Point for True Sportsmen
"Fudging the Numbers" - The Battle for Handfishing Pt. 2
Thursday February 28th, 2008
Lets start with a handfishing video today. Tell me that this is not a sport!
Marty Jenkins, his wife and a few friends legally handfishing on the Tennessee River.
Lets go over some facts:
Hand fishing is legal in 13 states including 6 that border Missouri: Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinios.
According to an MDC survey, 51 percent of Missouri residents would support a hand fishing season.
Another, survey conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service found that 68 percent of those polled were in favor of a hand fishing season.
The Missouri Department of Conservation and the Conservation Federation of Missouri are constantly trying to convince people that hand fishing would hurt the catfish population. But during the two years of the 5 year trial that was cut short, only 47 catfish were caught by hand fishing.
The MDC tagged 5099 catfish for the Catfish Harvest Evaluation Project. Only 13% (646) of these fish were caught but only one (1) was from hand fishing. If the MDC was really worried about the health of the catfish population, they would restrict fishing overall and limit daily limits but its clear that hand fishing poses no threat to the health of the species.
Glenn Chambers who is the president of the Conservation Federation of Missouri and who strongly resides in the pocket of MDC Director John Hoskins, praised the department for their decision on hand fishing. He said, "Attention to Trophy Catfish management is long overdue and I applaud MDCs stance on this issue."
However in regards to large trophy catfish, leading Oklahoma Fisheries Biologist, Dana Winkleman conducted a 10 year study that found while some may think that Noodler's target larger fish and this might have a detrimental effect on the population. However, he found that Noodler's are not size selective and the size distribution of their harvest is similar to that which is available. Overall, Noodling is probably not having a significant negative impact due to its rarity.
Dr. Don Jackson, Mississippi State University completed and published two hand fishing studies. Dr. Jackson, is one of the leading authorities on Flathead catfish. Dr. Jackson is slated to serve as President of the American Fisheries Society in 2010.
The following statement is on page 30 of Dr. Jackson's study published in 1999. Perceptions that hand grappling is not "Sporting" reside primarily among individuals who may not have participated in this fishery. I guess Glenn Chambers and John Hoskins fall into this catagory. Don also stated that he has been hand grabbling with a former Governor of Mississippi and the President of Mississippi State University on a lake located on their campus.
So what evidence does the MDC have that leads them to come to the conclusion that hand fishing is bad for the health of catfish?
In 2005 the MDC and Steve Eder, Chief of Fisheries, conducted a study to determine the effects of hand fishing. It was very clear that this study was only meant to come to one conclusion. The study was more like something Michael Moore would think up for one of his documentaries.
At the M.D.C's November regulations meeting, MDC Biologist Ron Dent stated that at the study conducted at the Lost Valley Hatchery, the catfish were taken off of the nest within the first 24 hours after laying eggs. The result was a complete loss of the brood or 100% mortality rate!!
Well Duh!
The Missouri Department of Conservation's 2006 hand fishing studies of taking the parent fish off the nest in the first 24 hours of incubation was an experimental manipulation which may not reflect the true effect hand fishing has on the brood in the natural environment.
The incubation period for catfish averages five plus days (116 hour's).
The M.D.C. didn't try to professionally and scientifically investigate with the logical experiment design of systematically removing the parent off the nest starting at the end of the incubation period and decreasing this procedure by six or twelve hour increments. This may have revealed a 10 to 20% successful hatching ratio when removing the parent nearer the full term of the incubation period. It seems the M.D.C. has spent thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands to manufacture these catch phrases, "Their experiments resulted in complete or 100% brood failure when removing the parents from the nest." "Resulted in complete mortality of the brood."
MDC fisheries biologist Alan Brandes, was in charge of structuring and performing these tests. Gary Webb of Noodlers Anonymous conversed with Alan on several occasions and was excited, anticipating the hatching of the eggs. Alan had told Gary that two nesting pairs had went on the nest five days previously. He asked Alan if any eggs had hatched yet. He told Gary that he had taken the parents off the nest the first day!!! He asked Alan what was the reason? He informed Gary it was the orders from the highest authority and he was not to discuss his research with him. Later it was reveled to Gary that all MDC fisheries biologist had been told not to discuss any of the C.H.E.P. studies with him without approval from the directors' office.
So basically what it comes down to is that the Director or someone in his staff purposely wanted the kill off the nest in order to use the results as a way to combat the hand fishing movement in Missouri!
Heck I even think Michael Moore has more credibility with his studies then those conducted by the MDC.
Part 3 coming soon.
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Sen. Dan Clemens Remarks
Just last month State Senator Dan Clemens made remarks on the Missouri Senate Floor expressing his concerns with the current leadership at the MDC. Please read his remarks and forward them on to others who may wish to read them. Click Here
Report to Elected Officials
Please download and pass on the Take Back The MDC report to elected officials concerning the current state of the Missouri Department of Conservation. Please call your state elected representatives and senators and tell them that you are concerned with the Leadership at the MDC. Tell them you want change!
Download HERE
