Monofilament. Easily the most popular and used fishing line. It's cheap, durable, and can be bought in, seemingly, any store that has anything to do with fish, which can be tackle shops or a 7-11 that sells Goldfish crackers.

It also is discarded from boats and thrown on shores and riverbanks with reckless abandonment. This Saturday, there will be a wide-spread mono cleanup of the Tampa area. It's the 15th annual Monofilament Cleanup Day, and they never have a shortage of line to gather.

"It's actually a very big problem for healthy birds because typically it's the very healthy birds out foraging for food that become entangled," said Ann Paul, regional coordinator for Audubon of Florida. "They can get snagged in monofilament when they catch somebody's bait on a hook."

Discarded fishing line is likely the number one killer of brown pelicans in Tampa Bay, Paul said. "A tremendous number get hooked and hang and dangle and die. We've seen skimmers and terns, spoonbills, all entangled. It's heart-breaking to see."

Click here for the full story.

I hope that anglers make up the bulk of the volunteers this Saturday. With all that fishermen do to protect their streams and fish populations, it's sad to think that all this fishing line is the cause of so many unnecessary deaths. So, before you head out to chase redfish in the shallows, troll for stripers, or cast for trout, take off your old line, recycle it, and spool on some fresh line that is less likely to break off and litter the beaches.

The United States leads the world in a lot of things: fast food restaurant development, harboring top-level basketball talent, celebrity gossip. It also leads the world in conservation. No other country can claim to have the amount of industry that the U.S. has and the dedication toward preserving our natural spaces. I mean, the American Model of Conservation is called the American model for a reason.

This op-ed from the London Telegraph states that the European Union is 25 years behind the U.S. in fish conservation. I can't imagine anyone who reads this blog would refute that. If anything, they may be further away than that. I mean, Switzerland banned catch and release fishing for Pete's sakes.

The Telegraph's recent rant focuses on cod:

The council is bound to adopt catch quotas consistent with the Cod Recovery Plan. That plan's objective is to increase cod stocks within one year, or the shortest time thereafter, to levels where they are no longer at serious risk of collapse.

The scientific advice last year was that quotas should be set at zero, as it have been for several years. Ministers ignored the advice and granted fishermen 20,000 tons of cod.

When WWF applied to the European Court to challenge the 2007 quotas, the court threw out its application because it did not have the right to be heard, even though WWF is an official member of the North Sea regional advisory council, and is consulted on quotas...

The conservation of fish stocks in the United States is 25 years ahead of the EU because environmental groups have challenged the executive when it breaches its legal obligation to conserve fish.

I would like to correct Charles Clover, who wrote this op-ed, a bit, and say that it wasn't only environmental groups (like WWF) but groups like Coastal Conservation Alliance and Trout Unlimited who work hard to make sure we have fish to catch. My solution for the EU is simple. Gather your anglers, form Cod Unlimited, and you'll never run out of fish and chips.

Richard Marovich
Elmira, Calif.

Ten years ago, the lower Putah Creek in northern California would become a dusty ATV trail in the arid months between August and November. But in 2003, after three years of work, streamkeeper Richard Marovich witnessed the largest salmon run documented in the creek’s history. Marovich was appointed streamkeeper for Putah Creek when a decade-long lawsuit was settled in 2000, and a California judge ordered the Solano County Water Agency to maintain a perennial flow in the creek, awarding the Putah Creek Council an annual budget for preservation. As the Putah Creek streamkeeper, Marovich is in charge of monitoring the stream, organizing restoration projects, and raising financial support. “It was a chance for a more hands-on approach to science,” Marovich says, explaining that his previous work was mostly theoretical. In the past eight years he has worked overtime to raise more than $5 million to restore the creek. Marovich says that flyfishermen were proactive in initiating projects to revitalize the stream. “The flyfishermen get it,” he says. Now they are reaping the benefits of their hard work. Marovich describes Putah creek, which is stocked with 20,000 trout annually, as a trophy trout stream. The stream also supports healthy populations of salmon and there are indications steelhead are taking hold. Although Marovich boasts that “more progress has been made than I ever dreamed possible,” he says there is more work to be done before Putah creek is a self-sustaining system. And while restoration projects and fundraising take up too much of his time now to let him relax on the water, he looks forward to the day when he will be able to do more “fish monitoring” with a fly rod from the comfort of his kayak. --Richard Bach

Labels: Heroes of the Week

Hunters and anglers know how to stretch a dollar. We reload cartridges, tie our own flies, repair torn pants (and just about everything else) with duct tape. We make our initial investments, and make sure that we keep them for years in hopes that we can pass something treasured and well-used down to a son or daughter.

So, it shouldn't surprise you that some of the most tightly run state departments, many times, are the agencies charged with wildlife conservation. These agencies have taken many hits recently. Funded mostly on license fees, which have been decreasing, the agencies have been working to address a growing number of concerns with dwindling budgets. And over the weekend, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission suffered a blow.

In this era of conspicuous overspending by state government, there is at least one agency that stands out for its thriftiness. It's the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. The professional staff of the NCWRC have a well-deserved reputation for saving, scrounging and sacrificing in an effort to get the most out of the limited funds that they are allotted. It's ironic then, and especially galling, that one or more thieves broke into the Wildlife Commission Brice's Creek depot last weekend and made off with equipment that is used to enhance the state's wildlife resources. The thief or thieves robbed not only the professionals who use the equipment but all of the state's sportsmen who are beneficiaries of the Wildlife Commission's efforts.

Click here for the whole story

Field & Stream has a close tie to the NCWRC. Our three-time Total Outdoorsman, Paul Thompson is a wildlife technician for the agency. So we know, first hand, that they're a top-notch department. We also know that when sportsmen suffer a blow like this, we bounce back and get to work. Hopefully they'll find the criminals who stole this equipment, but no matter what, the work won't stop.