00:00:09 Speaker 1: From Mediator's World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Kel's We Can Review with Ryan kel Kell in now Here's Kel subbing in for Florida Man this week. A Brooklyn, New York Man was recently caught on camera dragging two large garbage bags full of live eels into Brooklyn's Prospect Park, where he proceeded to dump those eels into the park's forty acre lake. When confronted, the man protested that he was just trying to quote save lives. The Asian swamp eel a k a. The rice eel or monopteris albus is about a foot and a half long and looks a little like the front end of a python. You might encounter eel as unagi in a sushi role in a Japanese restaurant. And although we don't know where this Brooklyn dumper got his eels, it's possible that he liberated them from one of the nearby live fish suppliers for the city's restaurants. Eels are an important food source in Cambodia, Loose Myanmar, and elsewhere in Asia, where they are grown and in flooded rice patties then sold along with the rice, which is a pretty neat technique selling all the parts of the meal together like slightly less packaged lunchables. Lunchables has Unfortunately, the Asian swamp eel has become an enormous problem, and you guessed at the Florida Everglades, where all invasives seemed to end up accidental or deliberate release, similar to what our Brooklyn friend was up to in the Chattahoochee Basin in southern Georgia and likely in the Everglades itself, has led to yet another invasive population explosion there and yet another threat to the Everglades already stressed native wildlife. Dominic Pabone, a Brooklyn chef from Prospect Park Angler, took the video of the misguided eel hero and recorded the man's impassioned argument on behalf of the eels. On the recording, ba Bone argues back that introduction of the eels will harm the fish, birds and other creatures that are supposed to be in the lake, disrupting life instead of saving it. That's some well developed off the cuff conservation persuasion right there, which hopefully we'll head off this dumping crusader in the future. Well done, Mr pop Bone. Although Brooklyn is likely too cold for the eels to survive the winner, as Marty Royce, wildlife technician with Prospect Park Alliance, noted to CBS News too, they can still do plenty of damage before a winter freeze. They're known for having extremely healthy appetites and eating almost everything that they can fit in their mouths around, including other fish, crustaceans like shrimp and crayfish, frogs, turtles, eggs, all manner of invertebrates. In short, you don't want them in your ecological neighborhood. I am hopeful that maybe from here on out, Brooklyn Man can take some of the heat off of Florida, ma'am by doing spectacularly ridiculous things while maybe you know, wearing suspenders and riding a fixie. This week we've got lamb praise, handmade arrows, desert man tees, and so much more. But first I'm gonna tell you about my week. My week was cold, my friends and neighbors. Winter came early to Montana and the general rifle season opener. I found need to thigh and hip deep snow drifts, wind and sunburn, and that is about it. I also voted, which everyone needs to do. Remember, if you don't weigh in, you don't wrastle, and if you don't vote, you don't reserve the right to complain and moan for the next four years. That being said, we'll move on to the Snort report, just what people really want to hear, according to the ask cal inbox. At least, I'll preface this by saying that, yes, on occasion, I do get tired talking about my own mistakes. But if I didn't have my mistakes to talk about, what the hell would I talk about? So I took Old Snort on a long, long, cold walk, which was highly entertaining due to the fact that the snow was very deep and she is not tall. She charges though, she loved her time in the snow, and she worked hard, probably way too hard if I'm being honest. Eventually, in the late afternoon, as the tempts started to drop towards zero, I spotted a bunch of sharp tail messing around on this little knob, probably forty of them. If you've never watched sharp tail grouse, it is a hoot. They strut, they fan, they chase each other around, kind of like little tiny gobblers. As we're working our way toward them. I fall in a hole and go east first into the snow, which is not all that abnormal. This is cold, sugary snow, so it's in my eyes and ears and eyebrows and stuck to my face. No injuries other than I'll tell you it's hard to breathe when you haven't excited, not yet six month old puppy trying to clean the snow off your face while you're laughing at your own clumsiness. Came close to being the only hunter to ever die from choking on a Labrador tongue, and I do know where that tongue has been. Mostly the issue was I had my shotgun broken open. I find the over and under, which is a twelve gage weather b O'Ryan has been a great choice for puppy life, as you just break the thing open and it's safe for whatever situation. Stopped pe break it open, jump a fence, break it open, water the dog, break it open. It's a great system until you fall in the snow with the shotgun broken open. It was the end of the day and I didn't think these chickens were gonna stick around, which most of the birds I saw did not. They flew lee and I watched them fly and little explosions of frozen dust into a big, cold eastern Montana sunset. It was gorgeous. But then they kept flying and flying, and Snort seemed to step on sharp tail land mines everywhere she went. The sharpies had buried themselves in the snow, and I swear there were seventy in the flock, many of which offered easy shots at all angles. Snort pausing to look back at me while I tried to manipulate frozen fingers to open a frozen knife to work solidified snow out of the action of my shotgun until there were no birds left, just little snow angels of wing tips where a bird had once been, a crater in the middle. Eventually I did get my shotgun working and prayed my butt off that I could just get one bird, and almost back to the truck that one bird did come up and into range. Snort got all excited, all birdie over a tiny little creek that somehow remained unfrozen. I got ready, and eventually a spoon build duck rose about four ft in the air, obviously not wanting to leave the only open water it had found, so I let my dog down again confused her thoroughly, you might say, because I could not shoot the duck. I had old fashioned lead in my shotgun bismuth and upland game steel shot is very hard to find right now and it cost me cost snort a bird. I hope she forgives me only time will tell. Moving onto the mail desk, first up this one from DJ. I've always been a husk of Varney user, but the fact that Steele decided to sponsor a hunting podcast and further donated some equipment to trail projects made me think twice. Because of their support of yours, I decided to give them go with the pro series Splitting Mall after I broke another handle on the trusty, crusty old garage sail Mall I've always used. I overshot the wedge one too many times. Hey man, I've been there. The over straight call around the steel Mall was a real selling point, but the quality of steel spelled ste e l and construction makes it worth every bit of its high price tag. I split five chords immediately after buying it and did not need to take a stone to it once. Also, I was splitting some large rounds requiring the use of multiple wedges, and the sledge side is no worse for wear. It's rare today, but this honestly appears to be a lifetime tool. So please pass this along to whoever at steel to let them know that they've gained a customer due to sponsoring your podcast. When the time comes for a saw, I'll be shopping steel s T I h L, and I see some other steel hand tools in my future. Thank you DJ. And for those of you wondering if I forgot to mention that the world's number one prebayor of chainsaws Steel is the sponsor of this podcast, I didn't forget Old DEEJ did it for me. Next up, listeners responding to other listeners. You may remember episode or two back, the hunter who wrote in asking for advice after losing their private white tail hunting spot to some folks who wanted to pay big money in the least situation. One listener on the other side of this equation, a landowner who has welcomed hunters onto his Connecticut property for more than thirty years, wrote in to let me know about how beneficial that relationship can be. Not only have these Connecticut hunters taking great care of the land, they have also brought all of their creativity to bear and saying thanks, the landowner received a photo of a handmade arrow that the hunters made as a gift. And we're not talking Eastern graphite shaft instead. This arrow is made of red stem dogwood, straightened by heating and bending. It has a turkey feather fletch in an arrowhead, and hand napped out of Hudson Valley flint from nearby New York. The arrowhead and fletching are attached with deer sinew and hide glue. Even the decoration on the arrow was made from iron oxide and carbon black, and the whole package was presented in a glass front wooden case that the hunters also made. We're talking a serious, one of a kind treasure that only these particular five hunters who came onto this land could have produced. Now, I'm not saying that all you mugs need to learn how to make and use flint tools, although you'd probably be better off for it. Instead, I'll say to the hunter out there looking for permissions, think about what you do well and what you love to do. How could that translate into expressing your thanks. Are you a musician or a carpenter an accountant? Could that landowner use a singing telegram to her daughter she's separated from during quarantine birdhouse to encourage the bluebirds who fly through the property some help balancing the books after the fall harvest. Permission may not be immediate, but you don't have the cash to play this game. You need to think outside the box or build a box, I guess. And even more importantly, to the landowner out there has been hesitating to extend permissions to your neighbors, or who's been considering taking cash in exchange for the opportunity to hunt, This is just an example of there being plenty of value outside of the uh the green kind. Sure, all of us could use a little more cash, but there's friendship, mutual benefit, and who knows what else that can emerge here. It's a powerful way to build the bond that creates civic life. On top of that, many states free the landowner of liability as long as the landowner does not charge for access to the land. Something to think about next up, Mike Lee, No, not Utah's Mike Lee. Of course, the rest of this will clear your mind to that thought anyway, little nod in your direction, Mike, you looked at what season you had left in front of you and maximized time and opportunity. At the intersection a road killing happenstands. Great job and way to capitalize. You will have more success in the deer woods next year by chewing on this year's deer That just happens to support a different set at grill marks as the last one from the mail bag, also from a Mike, North Carolina. Mike, myself and a friend spent the weekend fishing for trout on a national forest in North Carolina. We drove back yesterday and we're unloading the vehicle. I heard a thump and then the friends started hollering. He had taken a rock off at one of the creeks and stashed it in his bag. When he removed the bag, the rock fell out and broke his toe. The subject line from Mike's email says it all. My buddy stole a rock from a national forest, and Karma was almost instant. Appreciate it, Mike. Moving on to the non charismatic creature desk, Idaho researchers have for years used rotary screw fish traps on the south fork of the Salmon River to study what kind of critters are swimming in said river and how many of them are there. Picture a big aluminum funnel suspended by floats on either side. This is all in the river. Of course, the open end faces upstream, the direction the current is coming from. Inside the funnel is a screw that will slowly roll the funnel as the water rushes through. The screw that spout side the narrow end facing downstream, when in fish catching mode, will divert whatever comes through it into a holding area safe from predators until a technician or a biologist can come gather the data they need. Over the past two years, these traps have been turning up thousands of pieces of good news. Juvenile lamprey the same fish you often see suction cup to the side of sharks on show Ark Week. Lamprey are the jawless fish whose funnel like mouth might remind you of that Sarlac Desert monster and return in the Jedi. Everyone's a Star Wars fan right. They are among the world's most efficient swimmers, creating pockets of low pressure around their bodies as they curve back and forth, so they actually pull themselves through the water instead of pushing. Because these fish are eventually parasites on other fish, and because they look like slithery, dark brown snakes, lamp prey lack the charismatic appeal of the salmon, dolphins, or sharks of the world, although I for one would tune in for lamp prey a week on Discovery Channel. Lamp prey or even sometimes mistaken for an invasive species in the Pacific Northwest, but lamp prey are native to the Columbia River basin. In fact, they may be the most native fish in this part of the world, as they've been swimming these rivers for over four hundred and fifty million years. Salmon, you know, that fish everybody loves to talk about, have only been here for ten thousand years or point oh two of lamp prey time. Now, if you still hear the word lamp prey and are sure they are invasive, you're probably thinking about the sea lamp prey, the smaller variety that has infested the Great Lakes region since they possibly migrated through some man made canals in the late eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds. Those sea lamp prey don't just hang out on the sides of their host fish, but instead bore into their hosts and feed on their blood and organs by drilling into them with a tongue covered in razor sharp teeth. Doesn't that sound lovely anyway? The Pacific Northwest, lamp prey, like salmon, are anadromus, meaning they migrate from the ocean up freshwater rivers in order to spawn. In doing so, they're an important food source for all the wildlife along those rivers, bringing tons of nutrients deep into the continent. Or at least lamp preys used to do this before dams cut them off as they tried to swim up and down river. Because lampreys can't navigate fish ladders designed for salmon and other more energetic swimmers, their numbers have collapsed since the nineteen forties, when hydroelectric dams started to be built across the Pacific Northwest. Things got so bad that in two thousand and ten only fifteen lamp prey turned up in the screw traps of the entire Snake River basin in Idaho. But as regional fishery biologist Josh Pool reports on the Idaho fish and game blog, which I'll pause here and say is excellent and very worth your reading. Thousands of juvenile lamprey have been turning up in screw traps over the last two years. This is the result of the concerted effort starting in two thousand twelve by the Columbia River Inner Tribal Fish Commission to boost lamp prey numbers. In particular, the Idaho Nezpur's tribe has trans located a large number of lamp prey into the East Fork Potlatch River and elsewhere to bring these native fish back. You can think of this eel dumping as the opposite of Brooklyn Man, because you know you're dumping non non natives exactly where they're supposed to be. Novel concept. As Elmer Crow, the leader of the Nez Purse reintroduction effort, told The High Country News, they used to be in my country by the millions. In addition to getting more lamp prey out there, the Nez Perce have also been working with local agencies and other conservation groups to make damns more lamp prey friendly. Judging by the numbers and the traps, they're doing something right. There is a conservation opportunity here. If we work hard on lamp prey recovery now, we can keep them off the endangered species list, and that means not only more of those Johnny Come Lately species, the Pacific salmon and steelhead, but also no restrictions on where we all can fish, and that would be an answer to all our lamb prayers. Moving on to the Egyptology desk, this next species was likely in the area we now call Egypt for way longer than it's been called Egypt. In a recent study presented at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology's annual conference, the fossilized bones of a creature much like today's manatee were discovered in what is now the desert southwest of Cairo. The modern version of this ancient sea cow or doo goong looks like a cross between a walrus, h sharp pay puppy and a swimming couch cushion. The fossilized bones date from the Eocene Epic fifty six million to thirty four million years ago and the Alligacine thirty four million to twenty three million years ago. So like if you're one of those people that likes to compare everything to how old the pyramids are. This sea cow that swam through what is now desert makes King Tuck look like someone who breathe eased in just a couple of days ago. Asking which way is the beach condle made, don't and getting back to our call to action, This is my last word before November three. Go vote. There's a lot of noise at the top of the ticket, but remember to drill down to the state and local reps who carry out the will of the people in your particular area. Go to my reps m y r EPs at data made dot us. Enter your address and find the folks from president all the way down to county clerk and everyone in between who worked for you. Find out where those state legislators or U S Congress people stand and hold them accountable for what they have done or what they say they will do. In politics, you never get everything you want, but voting and then bugging your elected officials at every opportunity is the only way to get anything you want from government. As the the legendary Jim Pozwits, who passed away this past July, was fond of saying, in regards to conservation battles. Like anything in a democracy, it is what you make it. And think hard about how you vote, because it's going to count for a long time. The writer and farmer Wendell Berrier reminds us how long quote. Whether we and our politicians know it or not, nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do. And if you want to see more and better out of our elected officials, think about running for office in the future and becoming an elected official yourself. Conservation work never ends, and after this election, there will be many, many more elections and many more conservation battles to fight. So go out there, stand in line and cast your vote. You'll get one of those little stickers that you can put on Instagram. That's all I've out for you this week. Thanks so much for listening. As per usual, let me know how I'm doing and most importantly, what is happening in your neck of the woods by writing in to a s K C. A L. At the meat Eater dot com. That's ask Cal at the meat eater dot com. Thanks again and I'll talk to you next week.

Save this episode