Stewardship Tip - Prevent Gas Spills on the Boat
Handling gasoline on the boat requires special precautions. Here are several tips to help you safely fill your boat and to prevent spills.
- Know how much fuel your tank will hold: Know how much gasoline you need to add in order to fill your tank. Allowing fuel to spill into the water through the vent, just to check for a full tank, introduces fuel directly into our fish's habitat.
- Stop pumping when close to full: Make sure to fill your tank about 95% full; leave about 5% of the tank's volume for expansion. Pumping gas from a cool underground tank on a hot summer day, will cause gas to expand and possibly leak from the vent after you've left the dock. Also, if you fill your tank to the fullest, gas will stand in the fill hose. The fill hose is not designed to store fuel.
- Fill on shore: Fill portable tanks from outboard boat engines on shore, not near water.
Why it is important to the fish: Recent research, conducted by Dr. Peter Hodson, indicates that detergents may be the best way to treat spills in the long term. Detergents disperse and dilute oil and fuel. Dr. Hodson noted, that detergents decrease the surface tension between oil and water, allowing floating oil to mix with water as tiny droplets. As a result, it creates a larger reservoir of oil in the water column and increases the transfer of hydrocarbons from oil to water. These hydrocarbons pass easily from water into tissues of fish and are deadly in the early stages of life.
When fuel is spilled directly into the water, our fish suffer the consequences. These consequences are usually dire. While there are methods, such as the use of detergents, to break down fuel, the best practice is to keep fuel out of the water entirely.
Take the responsibility when you fill your boat. Keep gasoline out of the water.
While We're On the Subject . . .
Stewardship Tip - Be prepared for Gas Spills
Preventing a spill is a far better alternative than dealing with gasoline or oil in the water. However, as recent events in the Gulf and at Donner Pass have demonstrated, being prepared to deal with an oil or fuel spill is an important part of handling fuel.
If you own a boat, you should be prepared to clean up oil or gas spills on the water. Acting quickly and decisively will contain a spill and can help to keep spilled oil or gas from killing fish and destroying habitat.
- Be prepared for spills: Every boat owner should have a spill kit. The kit should include a set of oil and gas absorbent pads or pillows, a set of oil and gas absorbent booms, and disposal bags. You can pick up these items at many marinas or boating supply stores.
- Brief your crew: Every member of your crew should be ready to take action if a spill occurs. Develop a set of procedures to follow in the event of a spill and brief your crew on those procedures.
- One crew member should be responsible for stopping the source of the spill. This is important as it is the task that must be executed first. This responsibility should fall on the boat owner's shoulders.
- Another crew member should be responsible for deploying absorbent booms to contain the spill.
- And, yet, another crew member should be responsible for deploying absorbent pads or pillows inside the boom to absorb the gasoline or oil.
Make sure that each crew member know where the booms, pads, and blankets are located. Even if you are fueling your boat alone, have the procedures fresh in your mind, know where the kit is located, and be prepared to act.
Also, make sure to check with your local marina on the procedures to follow with regard to disposal and reporting. For example, if the spill exceeds a certain amount, you may be required to report it to your local Department of Environmental Services or local Fire Department. If the volume of a spill constitutes a sudden threat to the public health or the well-being of the environment, then it must be reported tot the US EPA (National Response Center at: 1-800-424-8802).
Be prepared to clean up oil or gas spill on the water. Act quickly and decisively and help to keep gas and oil away from our fish.
Stewardship Tip - Don't Dump Your Bait Bucket
Rainbow Trout were introduced into fishless Diamond Lake, near the headwaters of the Umpqua River, in 1910. The rainbows thrived. Fish weighing 10 pounds were not uncommon.
In the 1940's, tui chubs were introduced into Diamond Lake. The chubs were used as live bait; a practice that was legal at the time. Eventually, the tui chubs established themselves. While the rainbows ate the chubs, the chubs feasted on zooplankton, thrived, multiplied, and, literally, cut off the rainbows' food chain at its base.
The effect was devastating. Catch statistics indicated that anglers caught 12,807 rainbows in 1947 with an average length of 15.75 inches. In 1953, the number dropped dramatically to 8,455 rainbows with an average length of 9.6 inches.
Diamond Lake was treated with rotenone in 1954 and, according to the Oregon DFW, the treatment was 100% successful. Trout were successfully reintroduced (1).
In the 1980's, tui chubs wereintroduced into Diamond Lake once again. This time illegally; in Oregon, it is now against the law to use live bait fish in freshwater streams and lakes.
In 2006, the Oregon DFW treated the lake with rotenone, a second time, to rid the lake of 95 million tui chubs (2).
Don't dump your bait bucket: We often mention exotic species such as zebra mussels or Asian carp when we talk about aquatic nuisance species (ANS). We do not think of our bait buckets as something that can carry ANS. But they can. And, in the case of Diamond Lake and tui chubs, they have.
We also don't typically think of chubs as ANS. But they can be. Despite the fact that tui chubs came from the Klamath River Valley, near Diamond Lake, they have proven themselves to be nuisances, two times over.
This is why it is critical to keep the contents of your bait bucket out of the lake. Don't dump your bait bucket. Dispose of any unused bait fish in the garden, the compost pile, or bag it and put it in the trash.
Know and follow all regulations when you fish. If the regulations allow bait fish, dispose of them properly. Don't dump your bait bucket in the lake.
(1) The 1954 rotenone treatment on Diamond Lake cost $140,000 and utilized Dingell-Johnson funds to cover about 3/4 of the cost.
(2) The 2006 treatment cost $6 Million. Federal, state, county and private contributions covered the costs.
Stewardship Tip - Keep Your Fish IN THE WATER
"And you let the worm just drift down," the host of the fishing show said. He held a nice, freshly-caught, bass in his left hand. "By rigging the hook right through the middle of the worm," the host continued, using the fish as a prop to point to the worm, "you have a rig that works well in clear water."
I kept thinking to myself, "put the fish back in the @#$%^& water" as the host rambled on, all the time using the fish as his prop to amplify his points. A full minute elapsed before the host tossed the fish, unceremoniously, back in the water.
Who knows what fate that fish met. What we do know is that it was deprived of oxygen for almost a minute. Sure, there have been cases, in the laboratory, where fish have survived after being out of water for 120 seconds. But, do we want the fish that we release to merely survive?
No! We want the fish we release to thrive!
We give a fish its best chance to thrive if we land it rapidly, handle it carefully, resuscitate it, and keep it in the water! Study after study has shown that minimizing the time a fish is kept out of water, minimizes the risk of mortality.
When we keep the fish in the water, we keep oxygen running across its gills. With oxygen running across its gills, a fish recovers quickly and will not suffer ill-effects of oxygen deprivation. According to Steven Cooke, an Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Biology at Carleton University, air exposure, if limited to less than 30 seconds, may not be detrimental to largemouth bass. He adds, however, that, if possible, air exposure should be "avoided completely."
Thrive? Or, Survive? Keep that fish in the water, let it soak up the oxygen and then let it go. You may catch that fish again, or you may catch its offspring. You can increase the chance that a fish will thrive by keeping it in the water.
Stewardship Tip - RELEASE OR KEEP
We are stewards, we practice catch and release.
There are times, though, when we want to keep a fish or two. We might be tempted by the flavor of a freshly cooked fish or we could be looking to help the fishery by selectively harvesting a fish of a particular size.
The decision is never easy, especially for those of us who have been brought up to follow a catch and release ethic.
Gene Wilde and Keven Pope, researchers at Texas Tech University and the University of Nebraska, provide us with guidelines that can help us decide, if we are inclined to harvest a fish.
Wilde and Pope observed that the "two most important factors influencing survival of largemouth bass that are captured and released are the anatomical hooking location and water temperature." They add that "survival is high among largemouth bass hooked in the oral cavity." They also note that "survival is substantially lower among bass hooked in the esophagus." In esophagus-hooked fish, survival was greater for those who were hooked dorsally (hook pointing up) as oppossed to those hooked ventrally (hook pointing down). Wilde and Pope speculated that the higher mortaility amongst this group was due to the heart's proximity to the ventral portion of the espophagus.
This research would indicate that if we do want to take a fish home with us, we might want to select a fish that we have hooked in the espohagus. If that hook is pointing down, moreover, we might want to select that fish for harvest.
Of course, the decision may have already been made for us. If the regulations require that you release the fish, you are obligated. However, if the regulations allow and you do hook a fish in the esophagus with the hook pointing down, that fish might be a good candidate for the stringer.
