{"id":57843,"date":"2024-02-01T09:05:58","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T15:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/?p=57843"},"modified":"2024-11-19T06:36:36","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T12:36:36","slug":"opinion-sturgeon-and-sandhill-crane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/opinion-sturgeon-and-sandhill-crane\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Sturgeon and Sandhill Crane"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bruce<\/a>By Bruce Ross, Executive Director bross@wisducks.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association\u2019s February 2024 Newsletter<\/a> edition.<\/em><\/p>\n

There was an article this week in the Wisconsin Outdoor News<\/em>about a new threat to sturgeon spearing<\/a> in the Winnebago chain that is NOT related to the lack of ice this year.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never dropped a spear on a lake sturgeon, nor do I feel the call to do so. \u00a0But I read this story in the Wisconsin Outdoor News<\/em> with a hunter\u2019s interest.<\/p>\n

The passion for Winnebago lake sturgeon spearing has yielded volunteer energy, a significant economic impact, and funding for scientific study of this population, which, as a result, may be the healthiest in the nation. Paul Smith wrote a great story on sturgeon spearing<\/a> last year, if you don\u2019t have personal knowledge of this activity.<\/p>\n

Now it seems this strong, well-managed fish population may be coming onto the endangered species act (ESA) listing, which would foreclose the annual spearing season, regardless of the health of the Winnebago fish population. A petition to the USFWS by the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group, was started to place all sturgeon on the ESA.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know \u2013 there may be legitimate reasons to consider some<\/u> sturgeon populations for endangered species protection.\u00a0 But the Lake Winnebago population is not one of those populations. It\u2019s arguably the best-managed, healthiest population of sturgeon in the world. Unfortunately, this issue may get caught up in federal bureaucracy and anti-consumption fervor, making a one-size fits-all ban a reality\u2026 science and actual conditions be damned.<\/p>\n

I have offered in previous articles that WWA\u2019s pursuit of a sustainable and ethical hunt for sandhill cranes may warrant the support of hunters everywhere whether they intend to hunt SHC in Wisconsin or not.\u00a0 If a hunt for a strong, growing population of game birds, scientifically and successfully managed under federal migratory regulations cannot not be established in a state with a constitutional right to hunt then what\u2019s the next anti-hunting shoe to drop? The beautiful and storied wood duck, the turkey, whitetail deer?\u00a0 The sturgeon example is a case in point of just how slippery that slope can get.<\/p>\n

Hunters and fishermen everywhere \u2013 regardless of your interest in sturgeon \u2013 should weigh in with their federal legislators<\/a> to require that science-based management of game species be respected in the face of emotionally-driven efforts to \u201cprotect\u201d such species from the very people who\u2019ve helped made their success a reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bruce Ross, Executive Director bross@wisducks.org This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association\u2019s February 2024 Newsletter edition. There was an article this week in the Wisconsin Outdoor Newsabout a new threat to sturgeon spearing in the Winnebago chain that is NOT related to the lack of ice this year. I\u2019ve never dropped a spear…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-57843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advocacy","tag-current"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57845,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57843\/revisions\/57845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}