Large Mine Threatens Fly Fishing Mecca

ANCHORAGE, Alaska: A large mine in the heart of some of the best salmon and trout fishing in the world is a fly fisherman's worst nightmare, says an official of a trade association.

"The prospect of hard rock mining in the Bristol Bay area of Alaska scares the hell out of the fly angling community and the businesses that service it," American Fly Fishing Trade Association President Robert Ramsay said. "These are some of the most cherished fly fishing waters on earth."

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Will You Catch The One Million Dollar Fish?

Somewhere along the coastal waters of South Florida roams a sailfish worth $1 million.

Almost anyone is eligible to collect the cash prize for recapturing the tagged fish, but first they have to register for one of Tony Albelo's two upcoming billfish tournaments -- the Sailfish Kickoff, Dec. 7-10, or the Mayor's Cup, Jan. 25-28 -- both out of Monty's Marina in Coconut Grove.

Whoever might be lucky enough to catch the fish must clip off the numeric tag, release the fish unharmed and present the tag to tournament officials for verification. Everyone on board will be required to submit to a polygraph test.

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B.A.S.S. Monopoly?? Stupid

Call me a purist but I think these branded versions of Monopoly are just stupid. Doesn't everyone already have a copy of Monopoly somewhere in the back of their closet? Just giving the real estate different names doesn't make the game any more fun to play. My all time favorite version is the National Parks one - yes, build hotels in our National Parks. Stupid!

"You don’t have to be an angler to enjoy the B.A.S.S. Fishing Lakes Edition of the world’s most famous board game, Monopoly. As you play the lakes edition, you’ll enjoy reeling in your bass fishing prize catches, collecting properties like Lake of the Ozarks, Lake Okeechobee, Lake Erie, the Potomac River and Lake Champlain. Railroads are now Loudmouth BASS, BASS Times and BASS TV shows. Even the traditional Monopoly money takes on a fishing flavor with Mr. Monopoly holding a fish in one hand and a rod in the other. The Monopoly B.A.S.S. Fishing Lakes Edition costs $29.99."

Thief Goes Fishing

Thief Goes Fishing for Bank Deposits
The Associated Press
Wednesday, December 6, 2006; 4:22 PM


BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A thief used a hook and line not to snag fish, but to remove bags of cash from a bank's night deposit box, police said.

Police would not say how much money they believe was taken, but think the thief made off with 11 deposit bags, Bloomington police Sgt. David Drake said.

An employee of the Fifth Third Bank branch called police Monday morning after noticing that there were far fewer deposit bags than usual, Drake said.

Authorities found the deposit box had been damaged, with one of the metal security pieces sheared off.

"It would've taken a lot of force to take that off," Drake said.

Next to the piece of broken metal, police found a dowel rod with fishing line and a hook.

Drake said authorities believe whoever broke into the deposit box dangled the hook and line into the box and fished out the deposit bags, one by one.

The bank did not have security cameras aimed toward the deposit box, police said.

Animal Activists Kill 15,000 Fish

Animal activists free 15,000 farmed fish to their deaths
By Valerie Elliott, Countryside Editor



POLICE have warned fish farmers to increase their security after 15,000 halibut were released from their cages in an attack believed to have been carried out by animal rights activists.
Thousands of dead fish are being washed up along the west coast of Scotland after the raid at Kames Marine Fish Farm, near Oban. The perpetrators are thought to have attacked last week. Detectives believe that the attack could be linked to a spate of other farm attacks throughout the country. The letters ALF (Animal Liberation Front) were spray-painted near by.



The loss is estimated to have cost the fish farm at least £500,000 as boats, cranes and offices were also vandalised. The halibut died from starvation or getting caught in seaweed. They were also being eaten by herring gulls and otters.

The fish farmer, who did not wish to be identified, said: “They claim they liberated them into the sea but sadly, as we all know, farmed animals, whether they are fish or any animals, don’t survive unless they are looked after.

The fish farmer added: “We farm them in a sustainable way. The welfare of the fish is at the forefront of our minds. Isn’t it better to have farmed fish than to be pillaging the seas where stocks are declining dramatically?”

Fish farms in Scotland, Kent and the South West have been attacked in the past year.

Singh's Buyers Remorse

When he wanted to build his throphy pier in Seal Cove, it was in case his wife had a medical emergency...

"The buyer of Boston's most expensive condominium, the $14.3 million penthouse at the swank Residences at Mandarin under construction at the Prudential Center, sued the developers to get out of the deal, saying the unit doesn't have enough light.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in US District Court in Boston, the prospective buyer, Florida real estate developer Pritam Singh, said that Mandarin's proponents, CWB Boylston LLC, intentionally withheld information about how much light was available in the penthouse, and how much shadow was created by nearby buildings. Singh said the issue was "of critical importance" to himself and his wife and business partner, Ann Johnston, who suffers from seasonal affective disorder, which triggers depression in the dark winter months."

more from the Boston Globe Article


http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/12/05/moving_out/

Stocking Stuffer Suggestions From Fishboy III

This unique multitool features a HAMMER! Give 'em the hammer this year and never be without a tools to tackle the honey do list!

Stocking Stuffer Ideas for Fishermen Part II

How about one of these handy little pocket knives? Only six bucks at www.fishboy.com!

Stocking Stuffer Ideas For Fishermen

We have a ton of great little gadgets and gifts for fishermen at Fishboy.com - check out our survival tools, multitools, antenna bobbers, Christmas lure ornaments and a whole lot more!

Aquarium Fish Puts Man In Hospital

EAST ROCKAWAY, N.Y. -- A man was taken to a hospital after tangling with a venomous fish in his home aquarium, police said.
A one-spot foxface rabbitfish bit the 19-year-old Tuesday night while he was working on his fish tank in East Rockaway, said Nassau County Police Officer Thomas Brussell.

The species has venomous spines on its back, according to fishbase.org, an electronic database maintained by researchers. Also called the blotched foxface rabbitfish, the fish is found in tropical seas off western Australia, the Philippines and other parts of the western Pacific Ocean.

Lego Mindstorms NXT Tip: Help Files

I found that the NXT software will not find the help files if you have FIREFOX set as your default web browser. Setting Internet Explorer as the default web browser solved my problem of not being able to find the help files.

Can you identify the Fish Guts Thugs?

THE two thugs who tipped an Esky full of fish guts and urine on a sleeping homeless man look set to get away with it. Eighteen months after they were captured on security camera the case has gone cold. Police have a suspect – but the poor quality of the security footage has made it difficult for them to mount a case to charge him. Not even a forensic specialist enlisted from interstate has been able to make a conclusive match between the footage and photographs of the suspect. The scientist says one of the suspects has altered his appearance since the incident, making it difficult to make a conclusive match. And unless someone comes forward to dob them in – and police are sure someone is protecting them – they may never face court.

The reward for information is still up for grabs.

Anyone who can reveal Reg's callous attackers is urged to contact Townsville CIB or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Black Eye Friday

The day after Thanksgiving is frequently referred to as "Black Friday". One of the major U.S. holiday shopping days, it is the day many U.S. consumers begin their annual Christmas shopping. The day is heavily promoted by retailers both in newspapers and with television commercials. The origin of the term "Black Friday" comes from the shift to profitability many retailers experience during the holiday season. Black Friday was historically when retailers went from being unprofitable, or "in the red," to being profitable, or "in the black".

But this year I think we can officially call it "Black Eye Friday" since retailers in pursuit of having the best deal around have cause frenzied shopping mobs - fuelled by lack of sleep, large doses of coffee, hours of standing in the cold, pumped up sales promotions and very limited discounted products (example $250 laptops at BestBuy, only 18 per store) -- the day after Thanksgiving has turned into a melee of shopping madness.

And what do the stores gain anyway? I recall going to Staples one early morning with my Father and Father-In-Law. We grabbed the deals and went home. We didn't stick around and shop. -- EMF

Scientists Develop Robotic Fish

BEIJING, Nov. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- A team of scientists thinks our ancient predecessors developed vertebrae and a backbone to stiffen their bodies so they could swim more powerfully and has developed robot tadpoles to help prove the theory.

The far-distant forebearers of humans and other vertebrates were much softer than their descendants. Instead of backbones they had flexible rods know as notochords. By evolving vertebrae the attached muscles could generate more force.

"The fossil record shows vertebrae evolved independently at least four separate times. That shows they must really be functionally important," said vertebrate physiologist John Long at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

To test this idea, Long and his colleagues built robot fish with backbones of varying strength to simulate extinct animals. They then "mated" the best swimmers to see how generations of "offspring" evolved to swim better.

The robots -- "Tadros" -- were modeled after the larvae of marine animals known as sea squirts, swimming creatures that still have notochords.

Each Tadro had a single electronic eye, a motor, a computerized brain that controlled its motions, and tails made of gelatin of different lengths and stiffness. The robots had bodies between six and seven inches long, with tails two to four inches long, and swam along the surface.

The scientists raced three robots in eight-foot-diameter fish tanks, each swimming to and around a light hanging above the tank.

After seeing which fish swam best, the research team "mated" them using computer simulations that modeled the genetic mixing that occurs during sex to produce the next generation of Tadro tails. The best swimmer was given the greatest mating success and opportunity to pass along its traits, while poorer swimmers were less fortunate.

After 10 generations, Long and his colleagues found that as swimming performances improved, stiffer tails evolved.

"One thing vertebrates really brought to scene were large, fast, active animals, and this part of the anatomy has a direct connection with that," Long said.

But Long said that only 40 percent of the increased swimming efficiency could be related to stiffer tails, which meant other factors were involved, including how easily the tail turns.

"We plan to investigate what that next 60 percent is," Long said.

The research team intends to add a "predator" into the tank during the next swimming competition to see how Tadro tails evolve then. This hunter will try to collide with the robots, while the Tadros will try to avoid it.

This next generation of Tadros will detect the predator using infrared sensors that mimic the pressure-sensitive organs of fish, known as lateral lines.

"We also plan not just on making the backbone stiffer, but on putting in vertebrae, to make them bend, to have joints, and see how that changes things," Long said.

Long and his colleagues reported their findings online Nov. 17 in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Two Fishermen Spend 30 Hours Floating In Cooler

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Two fishermen who spent nearly 30 hours floating in a large fish cooler have been rescued.

Crewmen on a Navy aircraft spotted Duane Grove and Robert Christenson more than 70 miles off the coast of Jacksonville yesterday afternoon.

A Coast Guard helicopter later hoisted them to safety.

Both men were listed in good condition last night at St. Luke's Hospital in Jacksonville. They had mild hypothermia.

The Coast Guard says the pair's boat was hit by a large wave Thursday morning, listed and began to take on water. One man was knocked overboard; the other escaped through a window.

They had no life preservers and couldn't get to the life raft, so they climbed into the floating fishing box.

Half Cooked Lobster Caught?

July 20, 2006—Batman fans will remember Two-Face, the villain with a mug that's half handsome and half gruesome. Recently a Maine lobsterman caught a different kind of two-faced prey—a lobster that looks half raw and half cooked.

Alan Robinson of Steuben, Maine, hauled up this two-toned lobster last week while bringing in his catch near the town of Bar Harbor (see Maine map).

Half of the animal is mottled brown, while the other is bright orange—the color lobsters turn after they've been boiled.

In his 20 years of catching the crustaceans, Robinson says, he has never seen anything like it.

"I thought someone was playing a trick on me," he told the Bangor Daily News. "Once I saw what it was … it was worth seeing."

He wanted others to see it, too, so Robinson donated his unusual catch to Maine's Mount Desert Oceanarium, where experts were able to shed some light on the find. Two-toned lobsters, they explain, are rare but not unheard of.

The shells of American, or Maine, lobsters usually sport a combination of yellow, red, and blue pigments. But the animals grow symmetrically, with each half of the body developing independently of the other.

In the case of Robinson's catch, half of the lobster's shell was lacking the blue pigment, giving it the appearance of having been cooked to a turn.

All this makes Robinson's fifty-fifty find one for the record books, the Oceanarium's staffers say.

The aquarium has received only three two-toned lobsters in 35 years, they note, and the odds of finding one that's exactly half and half is about 1 in 50 million.

—Blake de Pastino

"Crusty" The 10 Pound Lobster Steamed

ELGIN, Scotland, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- A hotel recently cooked up one of the largest lobsters caught off Scotland by divers, and now locals are upset about it.

The 2-foot long, 10-pound crustacean, known as "Crusty," was a beloved local celebrity that should have been saved and not eaten by the Mansefield Hotel guests in Elgin, irate residents told The Scotsman.

"We reckon it could be as much as 50 years old," said Kenneth Ross of the Elgin-based Burgsac Sub-Aqua Club. "To kill such an old beast is very short-sighted; the meat would not have been very good and, in my opinion, such a rare example of our coastal marine life should have been left where it was."

The hotel maintained that it couldn't pause to ponder the celebrity status of every lobster brought in to them. They said "Crusty" was some tasty eating for about four guests.

No More Fish Tossing

ITHACA, N.Y. Cornell hockey fans are being searched tonight for a surprisingly healthy weapon _ fish.
Big Red fans traditionally toss fish on the ice before the start of the annual Harvard men's hockey game.

But Cornell officials this week told fans to arrive early for tonight's game to be searched. Those found with fish or alcohol will be expelled from the rink.

Sometimes a lobster or octopus is tossed among the dozens of fish.

But Harvard players know to line up far from the student section, out of the line of fire.

If someone throws a fish during the game, Cornell usually receives a bench minor penalty.

Fantastic Salmon Recipe for the Holidays

Grilled Salmon Fillets with Chilli Coriander Pesto
This recipe is great for casual entertaining as it can be assembled hours beforehand and grilled at the last minute.

Serves 4

4 x salmon fillets, skinned
handful of fresh coriander, about 30g
(2 x supermarket packets)
1 red chilli, deseeded and roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
grated zest and juice of 1 lime
½ tsp sea salt
2 tbsp light olive oil

1. Remove any thick stalks from the coriander (small ones can be left on), roughly chop and place in the bowl of a food processor. Add the chilli, garlic, lime zest, juice and salt and whiz until the ingredients are well chopped.
2. With the processor still running, pour in the olive oil until the mixture is a wet paste. You can store the chilli coriander pesto in a jar in the fridge for several days.
3. Preheat the grill to high. Place the salmon fillets on a baking sheet and spread one side with the pesto. You could cover and store them in the fridge at this stage if serving later. Grill at least 10cm from the heat. Depending on the strength of your grill and the thickness of the salmon, they should take 8–10 minutes to cook.

Tip. You can also spread the pesto on boneless chicken breasts, which will take 20–25 minutes to grill.

Robotic Turkeys On Poacher Patrol

CONCORD, N.H. The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department is buying six robotic turkeys to help it catch poachers.
The turkeys can't gobble, but they can fan their tails and bob their heads -- even after an indirect shotgun blast.

The agency is buying one for each of the state's six fish and game management districts.

Colonel Jeff Gray says Fish and Game has had great success catching poachers with deer decoys. The department also has robotic decoys of elk, coyote and other game species.