Old Crow School and a Marsh Hawk’s “Agonizing Tangle”

May 17, 2006 at 10:33 pm

In the May 16th, 2006 version of the Whitehorse Star, there is a story about a Marsh Hawk (aka Northern Harrier) that became tangled in fishing line and died of starvation. I could not agree more with Philip Merchant’s (Dept. of Environment) recommendation to bring a small bag along to carry any extra line that one should come across.

It has happened to all of us where we hook up on something and it is difficult, if not impossible to retrieve our line. In the case of Pumphouse Lake the historical evidence is littered across the power lines (including lures). Pumphouse is also a great lake to take people new to fishing or little kids, given that it is close to town, a calm accessible lake and it has a variety of fish.

In addition to all the standard fishing conservation ethics (i.e. live release, barbless hooks, catch regulations, special management waters, etc..) we should teach new anglers and kids about the consequences of not collecting wasted line. Given the lower water levels in the spring, this time of year may uncover some line left over from last year. But hey…I am also the guy who excessively cuts all the plastic rings from my six pack to avoid birds getting their heads stuck in it.

The good news…by chance I was looked into Canadian initiatives related to cleaning up discarded fishing line and I came across the “Great Canadian Shore-line Clean-up” initiative http://www.vanaqua.org/cleanup/home.php. Guess who was featured on the front page of the website? The Chief Zzeh Gittlit School in Old Crow, YT.

The website states that the school:

“will be making Canada that much cleaner this September. They’ve registered a brand new clean up site! The Porcupine River flows through their isolated community, accessible only by airplane or by canoe. Welcome Chief Zzeh Gittlit School and thank you for signing up to keep Canada beautiful!“

Are there any other issues outside the norm that we as Yukon angler’s could do to demonstrate our conservation ethic and interest in sustainability of the fishing resource?

The only other issue I can think of is the damage that lead-based fishing equipment can have on waterfowl. For an in-depth story on the Canadian “lead debate” have a look at http://www.outdoorcanada.ca/fish/without_lead2.shtml

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