130yo sturgeon

[dk598]

There are monster fish in Wisconsin for sure. We go up there every year to various places (this year will be Chippewa Flowage for muskie).

The fresh water fishing hall of fame and museum is in Hayward, Wisconsin. Within those walls is an absolutely enormous sturgeon. I've got photos somewhere of it...

 

[The Commissioner]

How do you guys feel about felling a large tree? One with many, many rings? It's certainly much older than the operator of the chainsaw. But we view trees as a renewable resource. Can't we say the same about sturgeon?

 

[tmschuller]

I see your point and respect it but WOW I wonder how they survived before all the hunts??? No flames or belittling intended but you gave your side...

Perhaps you would feel differently if you had any experience with Africa or any knowledge of the wildlife management issues there. Without those hunters that you so casually belittle, apex predators and even large herbivores would not exist long outside of a few Parks with sufficient anti-poaching personnel to protect them. Africans do not tolerate lions, crocodiles and leopards eating their livestock, their pets, and their villagers nor do they tolerate elephant, buffalo, and hippo destroying their crops without substantial incentive. With such a slim margin between feeding themselves or going hungry they can't afford to share the same idealized image of wildlife that many elsewhere do. Instead, Africans have proven more than willing to deal with wildlife their own way in the absence of the management, money and meat that hunting brings. Poison and snares, which are both indiscriminate and cruel killers are the preferred methods of dealing with those problems. Even when/where wildlife conflicts are not a serious problem, poaching, whether for bush meat or the illegal Asian trade of animal parts for traditional medicine, is a huge problem. Hunting provides management of problem animals, money and meat to incentivize the villagers to not only tolerate wildlife but to protect it as well.

Here are a few recent articles to start with if you care to truly educate yourself about African wildlife and some of the problems that occur when they interact with villagers.
Hyena Mauls 17 Year Old

Group Declares War on Elephants

Lion Terrorizes Villagers

 

[Dead Duck]

130yo sturgeon

That's just too old.
I don't care how much experience he has, I would NEVER let him operate on me.

 

[cg21]

I see your point and respect it but WOW I wonder how they survived before all the hunts??? No flames or belittling intended but you gave your side...

I believe they were being hunted into extinction by poachers.....

 

[two70]

I see your point and respect it but WOW I wonder how they survived before all the hunts??? No flames or belittling intended but you gave your side...

The short answer is they simply didn't survive in large portions of South Africa. The longer answer is that it wasn't hunting that nearly exterminated wildlife from SA or even humans directly. It was outbreaks of rinderpest in the late 1800s carried by livestock that did the damage to most wildlife populations. As human and livestock populations grew much of the wildlife population only held on in areas where the tsetse fly was prevalent or where it was otherwise too dry to raise livestock. The tsetse fly carries and transmits a disease fatal to livestock thus preventing them from transmitting rinderpest to the wildlife in those areas. We are talking about a total area slightly bigger than Rhode Island in a country roughly the size of Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana combined. While the wildlife eventually developed immunity to rinderpest, it was hunting that eventually incentivised the restocking of wildlife and the reduction of livestock and made it possible for the wildlife populations to recover.

 

[two70]

I believe they were being hunted into extinction by poachers.....

Poaching was certainly the original and primary reason elephants and rhinos were and in the case of rhino, still are threatened with extinction. As mentioned above disease played a primary role for most other wildlife species though poaching for bushmeat played a role as well. The frequent and numerous wars that have occurred on the continent have also played a significant role at times by leading to habitat destruction and increasing the demand for bushmeat.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

How do you guys feel about felling a large tree? One with many, many rings? It's certainly much older than the operator of the chainsaw. But we view trees as a renewable resource. Can't we say the same about sturgeon?

I think we can. There's the old proverb about living in glass houses, and it applies to your point - We all live in wood houses.

 

[KittySlayer]

Well I barely noticed this thread as I get most my fishing news from the Hot Chicks Fishing thread.

It's the twelfth-heaviest on record in the state...

So that means there are another eleven bigger fish?

 

[1DOWN4UP]

The DNR have been managing that lake system very well for years.They used to only allow I think 30 or so a year to be taken a year.Now the sturgeon are at record numbers.That lake is a White Bass and Walleye Factory in the spring runs.Those people deserve the long wait for this. It's a different life up there.Heck,schools and businesses close statewide for the opening day of deer season.