Pacemaker Fishing Forum

A perfect storm of pollution, parasites, warming water, and endocrine disruptors may be combining to threaten one of the region’s most popular fresh water game fish, the smallmouth bass.

CBF’s new report, Angling for Healthier Rivers, tells their story. See link below.

Smallmouth bass are an economic engine and a keystone species, prized for the pure enjoyment of fishing for them. As importantly, they’re an indication of a system that is working. Or not.

In the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, the Shenandoah River in Virginia, the South Branch of the Potomac River in West Virginia, and the Monocacy River in Maryland, they have  experienced disease, die-offs, and sexual abnormalities over the last decade. When smallmouth are diseased, weakened, or otherwise  stressed, we know things aren’t right. The worrisome plight of smallmouth bass foretells broader problems downstream if left uncorrected.

And, it is not only the fish that suffer. Fishing for smallmouth is responsible for about 5,700 jobs and $630 million annually in sales of boats, fishing gear, and other goods.

Science has given us answers. We know what needs to be done, and we have begun to make progress. The Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint is the solution, and the states have begun to implement proven pollution reduction efforts. Our job is to ensure they stay on course to finish the job.

I hope you will read our report, get involved, and tell your elected officials that clean water matters to you. Individually, we sometimes feel unable to be heard. But collectively, our voices are deafening.

—Will

Will Baker
President
Chesapeake Bay Foundation


http://www.cbf.org/news-media/features- … 665e4b7b8b