Where Have All the Fishies Gone?

http://www.fishermanspost.com/

The older dudes will tell you that they used to cast a line off the beach or off the jetties and they would catch fish all day. These days you have to wait to get the fish that you can clean and store in the freezer for the lean months. Summer fishing is off to a slow start this year. It could be the water temperature, or the global warming, or the fact that unchecked commercial fishing has cut a swath through the food chain that is suppose to provide bio-diversity and balance sustainable fishing. Just about every young fisherman will disagree, but the old dudes know. There has never been this few fish and it's time to realize we need to back off the seafood if we want our grandchildren to be able to enjoy fishing. Wake up, people.

Until then, grab the rod and reel and warm up the grill because you are a fool if you take money out of your almost empty pocket and pay grocery and seafood stores for something you can get a stone-throws distance from where you live. King and Spanish Mackerel, Flounder, Bluefish, Dolphin, Flatties, Red Drum, Snapper--all good eatin' and all waiting for you.

Find a friend with a boat, or pitch in and charter one (before the price of gas hits $4.50 again), and head out to the wild blue yonder for a day of polarized fun. Then gut and clean that baby, make some lame excuse about why you can't stay to help clean the boat, and grab some beer on the way home to a full belly and left-over fillets for the freezer.

Never mind this little tick on the marine radar. It will all blow over soon.
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/news-article.aspx?storyid=132885

Next: Busted Part 3 - Down At The Local Cop Shop

Stay Out Of The Five Points!!...and Banks Channel

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20090428/ARTICLES/904284004/1004?Title=UNCW-tests-find-high-levels-of-fecal-bacteria-around-Wrightsville-Beach

http://www.carolinacruising.com/wrightsville_beach,_banks_channel.htm

Hey don't take this the wrong way, but we like shit as much as the next guy. It's a fact of life we sometimes enjoy dealing with on a daily basis, under control conditions. There are very few things as relaxing and rewarding as dropping a major deuce, free of worms, that also floats; it's considered a sign of good health.

It used to be that you would have to go to a really backward part of the world to find really good fecal swimming territory. Now there's no longer a need to pay money to fly to India, or Africa, or Belize, or anywhere else where sewage is part of the recreational day--just hang out in Banks Channel.

It started innocently a few years ago when swimmers started coming down with mysterious illnesses that it turns out were caused by staphylococcus aureus, also known as a staff infection. It has since grown into one of the major shames of Fantasy Island and it continues right at this moment. High levels of fecal bacteria will usually shut down the beaches of NY and NJ every summer, but apparently it is the boats that wait to get back to the channel and to their docks that are dumping their toilet load that are causing hell on earth here on WB. There are people fishing and eating flounder and other fish from there--feeding it to their kids. Good luck with that!

So let's get this straight, there are people who LIVE here, who are well-off enough to own boats, who are probably college educated, who are selfish enough to dump shit in the channel and at other major docks. The only thing worse than that is some dude taking a dump on Lumina Avenue at 3AM that some poor jogger steps in at 5AM.

The town seems to have solved the problem of dog waste on the Loop by increasing the fine to $250. May we recommend that there be a new fine for boat waste dumping. How does a $100,000 sound? Let's put that before the Board of Aldermen and fix this budget quick, instead of handing out speeding tickets to students who go five miles over the speed limit.

Next: Loop Puppy Rental Service. This Is Not A Joke.