Kentucky - Environment Day 5

Day five.

Written By Nathan Dent

Dear everyone,

Our journey has been sa-weet to date and today did not disappoint. Waking up to pancakes by Bill (Chris) was certainly a plus. Some of us were hot messes but we made it to our rendezvous point by 6:51 am (and didn't have to be there until 7!)…so it was our earliest wake-y, wake-y time yet. We met Neil and Pat at the Kentucky Fisheries and Wildlife HQ. We were impressed by their logo. We hung tight while they got us ready for the day. Pat went to Mizzou; He told us that apparently Mark Twain Residence Hall used to be private. Neat! We divided up into three cars for the daily drive up to Land Between the Lakes and succeeded in making a wrong turn again (this time it wasn't Matt's fault! But we will never divulge our navigator's identity [he knows who he is]). But all was well.

When we arrived at Honker Bay (that's really the name), Ronnie, a local commercial fisherman, was already setting up his nets. Chris (Bill) found a soccer ball that we all used to play with a bit before starting our day of learning and our first interaction with the Asian carp that brought us to these Kentucky shores in the first place.

We learned that most of the fish battle is being fought in Washington, not in Lake Barclay's Honker Bay. Things are being tied up with negotiations, lobbying, and legislation, the biggest debate being the best way to keep them out of the Great Lakes.

We divided up into separate boats. Max, Mitch, Bill, and Caitlin hopped into the shocker boat—a boat that shocks the water lightly enough to stun fish within a 10ish foot radius. The rest of us joy rode with Pat and corralled the fish into Ronnie's net. We didn't get many Asian Carp with the shocking. But that first group got one enormous Silver Carp on the first 'shocking' run. It was 30 lbs (in the spirit of the local fishermen, I should say 50 lbs or maybe we should round to 70!). Quality not quantity, right? We switched up the boats often and everyone got a chance to net some stunned fish and some of us even hopped on Ronnie's boat. The group of Caitlin, Matt, and Chris (Bill) got to help Ronnie get some soft belly sea turtles out of his net. Then they threw them back into the water. For whatever reason, every turtle did a back flop, eh, well.

I should take some time to tell you about Ronnie. First off you can smell fish and Backwood's cigar before you can see him. His philosophy on air is that it's inherently dirty so needs to be filtered in order for him to breathe it. Thus, if he's breathing, he's smoking. We are going to his house tomorrow... He had a brown pony-tail, a grey beard, rigged his own boat, and kissed a lot of his fish for luck. And he was kind enough to let us tag along, help, and learn a little in the process. He is a real Kentucky hero.

After we finished shocking, Ronnie started collecting his haul from his 3 foot tall, 2,600 foot gill nets (fish are caught by their gills in these monstrous nets). Some of us rode along as he gently lifted giant fish from the net into the boat by hooking their eyes (or he released them). Due to hot weather and low water levels, Ronnie was disappointed in his catch. But I should say that Ronnie's haul was still impressive by our standards.

After collecting the nets, we ate lunch and it was good (packed pb&j's, chips, carrots—the usual). Once it was time to go, we needed gas. Actually, before we even left for the site, we needed gas. The tank said we had eight miles to get to a gas station, we made it eighteen. Success. After gas, we made it home without worry. A seasonal fisheries and wildlife employee showed us an arrowhead he found today worth $300. Woah.

This section is dedicated to Neil, our fisheries and wildlife contact and friend. We know you are reading this Neil, so we will leave out all the negative and scandalous things about you (mainly because our experience was positive and wholesome). Neil samples fish from LBL bays and has a realistic but hopeful outlook on the impact he makes on the environment. Max, Ethan and I talked policy, economics, music, family and everything under the sun on our ride back from LBL. A great addition to a great day.

Once we got home, we heard there was a beach party at our compound/commune/Hancock Biological Center…but there wasn't. So we made it a party. Some folks rented canoes while others swam. Raean and Mitch won the canoe race while Lauren, Bill, and Matt capsized. Twice. The rest of us swam off the dock and got out before contracting hypothermia (it was close, but not too close). Then we grilled hot dogs and brats while playing cards. We met Matt's Kentucky contact, Nate. He recommended the restaurant we will be dining at tomorrow! Before our nightly reflection/blog sesh, of course we played games (Team Quelf and Mafia). Chris and Emily would've won at Quelf if the rest of us didn't collude against them at the end. But because of our cartel, team Max and Ethan were able to sneak past them for victory. And now here we are. Happy, tired, learned, cultured, and ready for another big day together.

Live update: The control group (myself [Nathan] and Bill) have contracted poison ivy as expected. However, our experimental group: Max, Megan, Cayla, and Raean, have escaped this fate. They are now sure that they are not allergic, Huzzah! Also, no ticks. I think they learned.