Re: NANFA-- public health advisory & introduced species

Dave Littlehale (rdlittle3_at_home.com)
Thu, 31 Jan 2002 21:15:14 -0500

On a related note, I found an interesting article in the Winter edition of
Estuary News, the newsletter of the Delaware Estuary Program.

http://www.delep.org/winternews02a.pdf

Here are some of the highlights:

On page 8 is an article on flathead catfish being introduced into the
Delaware River watershed. The last couple of sentenances pertain to the
topic at hand,

"...fish caught from the lower portion of the Schuylkill River, including
flatheads should not be eaten."

To change the subject a bit (also in the article), researchers estimate that
the catfish removed 20-35% of the black bass and sunfish population in
Byllesby Reservoir, and in the Altamaha River in GA, the flathead eliminated
bullheads and reduced the population of redbreast sunfish 80%. Great news,
huh!

A subject that is near and dear to most of us, "The AFS found that exotic
species contributed to 27 out of 40 North American freshwater fish
extinctions in the past century."

The PA Fish & Boat Commission is asking anglers not to catch and release
these fish in eastern PA waterways.

There is a little paragraph on the end about "noodling for flatheads".
Interesting stuff. "Tennessee anglers who noodle for flatheads hiding in
cavities in the bank have been known to dispense with the rope and use their
arms to reach directly into the fish's mouth."

Any TN people care to shed some light on this? Like, why?

Dave

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