Stray Cat

Some of the areas are close to home! Spring birding tours at Michiganâ??s Wetland Wonders content.govdelivery.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMarch 26, 2015Contact: Holly Vaughn, 313-396-6863 Spring birding tours at Michiganâ??s Wetland WondersNothing says spring like the â??conk-a-reeâ?? call of a red-winged blackbird or the raucous sounds of a sandhill crane. Celebrate spring and explore Michiganâ??s Wetland Wonders withâ?¦ Posted By Capt. John Giszczak of Stray Cat Charters

It's had to believe the government is still working on this problem for over 50 years - or is it Just makes ya wanna puke!!!! - http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/02/26/invasive-species-measure/24055289/ Senate panel approves amendment to protect Great Lakes from invasive species www.freep.com U.S. Senate panel approves an amendment that would force ships entering the Great Lakes to flush ballast water at sea, lessening the likelihood of invasive species reaching the Lakes. Posted By Capt. John Giszczak of Stray Cat Charters

What is the Federal Wolf Rulingâ??s Effect on the Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act? - On Friday, December 19, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howard put Great Lakes gray wolves back on the Endangered Species List. The federal wolf ruling halts scientific wolf management and overturns the United States Fish and Wildlife Serviceâ??s 2012 rule removing the wolves from the list and placing them under state management. One of the biggest misconceptions about this ruling, though, based on erroneous reporting in the Associated Pressâ??s release, is that the ruling makes the Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act â??null and void.â?? To the contrary, the Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act will still go into effect in March. The Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act was never just about wolves; it was about, as its title says, making fish and wildlife conservation decisions with sound science. The actual provisions of the SFWCA, which was passed in August as PA 281 of 2014 and will take effect on March 19, 2015, allow the Natural Resources Commission to designate game species and issue fisheries orders using sound science, keeps hunting and fishing licenses free for active military members, and provides $1 million to the DNR to fight aquatic invasive species, like Asian carp, which is part of managing fisheries scientifically. None of that is affected in the least by the court ruling; all the court ruling means is that the NRC will not be able to add wolves to the game species list until theyâ??re once again removed from the Endangered Species List. How we do that is a potentially long and complicated road, but we did our part here in Michigan. Whenever it gets figured out on the federal level, Michigan will have the ability to use hunting to manage wolves scientifically because of the hard work of volunteers who collected signatures for the Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act. In the meantime, every other provision of the SFWCA will take effect in March, including barring the Humane Society of the United States from running a statewide referendum on the designation of any future new game species. So whatâ??s next? The court ruling makes clear that the actual language of the Endangered Species Act is decidedly unclear. The judgeâ??s ruling hinged on her interpretation of the meaning of â??distinct population segmentâ?? and whether or not a listed animal is recovered in a significant part of its range, neither of which are well-defined in the ESA. Her ruling basically says that they cannot be de-listed and managed in areas where they are clearly recovered â?? such as Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michiganâ??s Upper Peninsula â?? until they are recovered in other parts of their former range where suitable habitat exists. In other words, we canâ??t manage them in the U.P. until theyâ??re roaming Oakland County in significant numbers (hint, hint). To fix that, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as the groups like MUCC that intervened as defendants in the lawsuit (including U.S. Sportsmenâ??s Alliance Foundation, Safari Club International, the National Rifle Association, the Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association, the Wisconsin Bowhunters Association, the Upper Peninsula Bear Houndsmen Association, the Michigan Hunting Dog Federation and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation) will have to determine if an appeal is the best course of action, or an amendment to the Endangered Species Act that clarifies the meaning of those terms, just as potential examples. This ruling does, however, invalidate the Michigan laws that allow farmers and pet owners to shoot wolves that are in the act of attacking pets and livestock. Remember how all throughout the debate of the SFWCA and Proposals 1 and 2 the anti-hunters like Jill Fritz and Nancy Warren kept saying, â??there are already lethal tools available, so we donâ??t need a hunting season?â?? Well, this ruling on the lawsuit filed by HSUS takes those away, too, proving that HSUS simply doesnâ??t care about the family pets or livestock that get killed by wolves, as long as no wolves are ever killed. But like I said, we took care of business here in Michigan. The Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act will still take effect in March. That didnâ??t change. And as soon as things get figured out on the federal level, the laws of the State of Michigan will be in place to manage wolves scientifically. With hunting. - See more at: http://mucc.org/what-is-the-federal-wolf-ruling-effect-on-the-scientific-fish-and-wildlife-conservation-act/#sthash.h6wkjbet.dpuf Posted By Capt. John Giszczak of Stray Cat Charters

Jan, with a nice Lake Erie walleye- thanks for your help Trevor

TJ from Boxcar Studio in Ann Arbor came out to sample a little Lake Erie walleye fishing. Thanks for all the help with my website!!!

Miranda and her dad trying to get a hold of her first Lake Erie walleye for a picture, that fish did not want to be photographed

This is going to be a big help to fish biologists, I had the pleasure of meeting Chris at a fisheries meeting last month on Belle Isle. Chris it very excited about this project and he shows it, he's also a good speaker. http://www.straycatsportfishingcharters.com/tracking-lake-erie-walleye/ Lake Erie Walleye Giving up their Secrets | Stray Cat Fishing Charters Lake Erie / Monroe, MI www.straycatsportfishingcharters.com Lake Erie walleye are being tagged with electronic transmitters and their movements are being tracked by researchers

Ohio's wildlife agency wants to know if can spur the revival of a rare fish once so plentiful in Lake Erie they were burned for fuel in steamships. Sturgeon were thought to be all but gone from Lake Erie less than two decades ago, but there are still a few spotted each year. Now, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources is looking into whether it can reintroduce breeding populations of sturgeon to the lake. There's been quite a movement to reintroduce sturgeon, as well as protecting their populations on the Great Lakes said Chris Vandergoot, fisheries biologist supervisor at the department's research station in Sandusky. The idea is tied to restoring threatened and endangered species because of improving water quality, he told the Port Clinton News-Herald. The fish, which are protected in just about every state where they're found, were overfished and nearly disappeared in the early 1900s despite being so abundant. What makes the sturgeon so interesting to environmentalists and anglers is their size and appearance. They're covered with bony plates and often called living fossils. Lake sturgeon can grow to 200 pounds. They have a very simple body structure, Vandergoot said. Everybody loves them. They're a pretty hardy species. Ohio wildlife officials said they get 15 to 20 reports a year of sturgeon in Lake Erie. The agency thinks they are juveniles swimming down from the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair River in Michigan, where there are healthy spawning populations, Vandergoot said. The natural resources department would not reintroduce the sturgeon as a game fish. Instead, they would be a piece of the lakes ecosystem, he said.

Glad to see Canada doing so good that their trash has increased More Canadian trash dumped in Michigan landfills; see who else sends trash here www.mlive.com Refuse from Michigan decreased about 0.5 percent, while trash from Canada grew 13.5 percent.