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American currents Volume 44 number 2 spring (April)2019


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#1 Moontanman

Moontanman
  • NANFA Member

Posted 28 May 2019 - 11:08 PM

Finally I got the chance to read over my new AC, actually I put several things off to make time but don't tell my wife. 

As usual it was a smorgasbord of pictures of place I'll never go and fish I'll never see in person. Only through the pages of AC can I visit these wild places and see species that make the aquarist side of me drool uncontrollably. 

The cover picture was awesome, piebald madtom! who knew such a beautiful creature existed!

In NANFA news the dwarf sockeye salmon got my attention immediately, I had never even considered the existence of such a creature! The work that NANFA does or participates in is truly spectacular and serves the fish we love in many ways. From considering native fish instead of exotics as aquarium subjects to the research that protects our believed fishes NANFA news is a sobering look at what is being down and what needs to be done.

 

The NANFA convention coverage just makes me green with envy! The black tailed red horse and especially the blue sucker make my head swim with visions of huge aquariums with schools of these suckers swimming about. 

 

Darters are always a strong contender for beauty in fish but the shiners and dace give them some strong competition. Even the brook lamprey begs attention with it's primitive looks. As a young boy the annual surge of brook lampreys always compelled me to try to keep at least a couple in a tank but not having any info on them back then I of course always failed. 

 

The Inconnu brings out the fisherman in me, the thought of one of those monsters on the end of light tackle almost takes my breath away. The story made me feel like I was there, I could almost smell the foul flesh as it sizzled in the pan. 

 

Brandon Li's study of the Jersey Pine barrens was... wait isn't that where the Jersey Devil is said to live? I'll give him five stars just for bravery! 

 

But Brandon's systematic study of the fishes and their environment was impressive. Extremely well documented with great photos. Brondon should be applauded for his skills in documenting his project not to mention his bravery in facing the Jersey Devil.  

 

I always like to see restoration efforts and all too often they center around the large spectacular species but the efforts of Doug M. Carlson, John R. Foster and Brent Leman are both impressive and important. The impressive species at the top of the food chain can't exist with out the lesser known species at the bottom and the smaller species are often the most difficult to fund and to breed. The important of men like these cannot be over stated. 

 

The Foray of John Olson and Konrad Schmidt both reads and from the excellent pictures looks like more fun that the law should allow. I was a big fan of camping in my younger years and always took my sons with me but our camping was often on the beach on the outer banks. John makes me think I missed out by not including more inland camping destinations. The documentation of the environment and wildlife was superb. Being more southery in my own stomping ground I keep expecting to see alligators, I'm sure John and Konrad didn't miss them at all.   

 

Riffles 

 

Sometimes it's complicated applies to fish as well as humans, the interaction of seals, orcas and salmon are briefly discussed and as usual for AC I learned things I didn't know i even wanted to know. Along with giant redear sunfish that would knock the socks off fishermen from my locality to good news about darters along with efforts by automakers, to the tune of 2 million dollars, to protect the spring pygmy sunfish and last but definitely not least  Women for Wild Fish rendezvous is endeavouring to get more women interested inn angling and our native fishes. 

The back cover has of all things a native marine fish! A male Bay Blenny.. with a hook in it's mouth! 

 


Michael

Life is the poetry of the universe
Love is the poetry of life




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