Adirondack Base Camp » Adirondack Life

The Essential Balance

TourPro — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:50:12 +0000

Life in the Adirondacks and North Country is finding the right balance.
A good example of this are the many Lake Champlain fishing tournaments.

This incredible piece of information was mentioned this morning in an article about the FLW Series Eastern Division tournament on Lake Champlain:

Overall, there were 687 bass weighing 1,839 pounds, 9 ounces caught by 146 pros Thursday. The catch included 127 five-bass limits.

I’m not a fisherman, nor do I know how many bass are in Lake Champlain, but this seems like kind of a big impact for a few days of fishing. Were any other fish-species caught in the process?

Of course, we weren’t surprised by the Economic Impact of Fishing Study earlier this year:

The recently released economic-impact study of the 2009 pro tournament season on Lake Champlain reported:

$4,722,459 generated annually for the region.

$8,419,831 generated with the inclusion of ancillary visits.

4,355 room nights.

42.5 regional jobs created.

2,852-percent return on investment on host fees.

Does the study mention negative externalities? Probably not. Why raise uncomfortable issues.

“I counted 91 bass washed up on shore between Rocky Point Beach and the State Park beach…They were all fresh kills, and they were all trophy-sized bass.”

Mel Frechette said it best, “Bass tourneys denuding lake of fish“:

We cannot simply pull out 8,000 bass in two weekends, as quoted in your recent article, without severely devastating the population. We are literally killing the golden goose with so many of these tournaments. Can’t anyone else see this?

Whatever. That “dead fish” thing is so last year. Let’s Go Fishing!

When we announce Lake Champlain on the schedule, it always brings a smile to people’s faces.

Oh no, not again:

Anyone else seeing dead bass floating around ? I have a bunch of them washing up around my place…all in the 3 lb range from the looks of them, nothing smaller than that. And bass only, nothing else. Wondering if it was lakewide or just a local thing.

Perhaps someone could classify Bass as an invasive species, then it would be a win-win situation for everyone.

Summer in the Adirondacks

TourPro — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:05:49 +0000

via @robrodriguezjr

Lightweight, Twin-engine, Adirondack Water-sampler

TourPro — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:01:26 +0000

This plane is so cool, I need one.

Lake Champlain, The View hasn’t changed

TourPro — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:57:30 +0000

“Across the lake from Hotel Champlain, Lake Champlain, N.Y.”
Circa 1904 – About this item

“Lake Champlain from back-lawn of Clinton Community College”
Circa 2009 – Pano

Seeking Adirondack Saturniidae

TourPro — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:24:52 +0000

The rich diversity of natural life in the Adirondacks never ceases to fascinate me. Dr. Janet Mihuc at Paul Smiths College is leading an effort to inventory the Giant Silkmoths of the Adirondacks. She’s hoping that volunteer citizen-scientists will help by submitting sightings. Sightings will become part of the Adirondack All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) database and will be used to construct occurrence maps for each silkmoth species. It’s thought that the numbers of these moths are on the decline and this data help establish a baseline for future studies.

Uh, these really are “Giant” moths:

Hyalophora cecropia (Robin Moth) (by Anita363)

Volunteer sightings are needed from all parts of Northern New York. Could be a really fun thing to do.

The survey runs through July 30, 2010. www.projectsilkmoth.org