Photo by James Wheeler, Unsplash.
By Stewart A. McFerran
One of my jobs as Assistant Harbor Master for Veteran’s Memorial Marina in Arcadia Township is to make sure the fish guts get picked up by the garbage truck. They get really smelly if they linger in the garbage tote.
The amount of offal varies. Sometimes in the fall there are two or three totes full. This week there were almost no smelly remains to be picked up by waste-hauling personnel.
The fishing was poor, as indicated by the contents of the totes. There could be lots of reasons for the poor fishing last week. The Big Lake was rough and few boats were able to get out of the harbor. Most who did said that there had been a dramatic drop in the temperature of the water, down to almost freezing in some places.
Even though hope springs eternal, the evidence in the garbage totes tells a tale that cannot be disputed. While I have seen big fish walked down the dock this season, sport fishers are trying harder, ranging farther and fishing longer for the fish they catch.
One thing that is not on the fish finder is the negotiation taking place between the Native American Tribes and the State of Michigan. The 20-year “Consent Decree” expired August 8. This important discussion about the allocation of resources is not on the radar. The Michigan United Conservation Corps continues to dismiss Indians as gill netters and gill nets as the reason for poor fishing. Tribal fishers are characterized as enemies of conservation.
It is time for an honest conversation of the “put-grow-take” operation. As Robert Doherty writes in “Disputed Waters: Native Americans and the Great Lakes Fishery”, the “crucial matter of allocation” is buried under an avalanche of environmental rhetoric.
Fish are raised in state-run hatcheries, released into the lakes, grow large and are caught for fun by persons that inhabit the marina. Doherty states that it is sort of “a giant fish farm” and that most of the benefits of the sport fishery “go to the middle-class white males who do not live in the region.”
He adds: “Treaty fishing is a way to reapportion the benefits to allow local Native Americans to participate as well.”
Be that as it may, I will continue to report on the smelly contents of the dumpster.
Stewart McFerran illuminates current environmental issues in a historic context. He hopes readers will gain an understanding and insight into ways people interact with their environment.
