Sunday hunting is once again up for consideration
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
For the third time in recent years the Game Commission adopted a resolution supporting legislative action that would expand Sunday hunting opportunities. The pronouncement included the need for continued wildlife management during a decades-long decline in hunting participation; potential creation of $629 million in additional hunting-related spending, creation of 5,300 jobs and $18 million in economic benefits. Commissioners restated that 47 states currently permit Sunday hunting.
“If the General Assembly repeals the restrictions on Sunday hunting, thus giving the authority to regulate Sunday hunting to the Board of Commissioners,” the resolution stated, “the Board recognizes the many stakeholder groups that any actions on Sunday hunting will affect and will endeavor to engage these stakeholders before passing any new regulations in regard to Sunday hunting.”
A new group, Hunters United for Sunday Hunting, is organizing in all 67 Pennsylvania counties pledging to remove the prohibition of Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania Title 34 Game Law. In a statement the group’s leadership (Harold Daub, executive director, and Kevin Askewwants, communication director) encouraged the state legislature to give the Game Commission authority to regulate Sunday hunting.
“... We are asking that the Game Commission be allowed to do their job as authorized and stipulated by [the] Game Law,” they stated. “Removing that prohibitive language and changing the game law will allow the Pennsylvania Game Commission to manage conservation efforts seven days a week..”
The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau is the largest group opposing Sunday hunting. Among other reasons, its members say they want a day of rest.
Changes at Shenango
At Shenango River Lake, a 3,560-acre impoundment that straddles the PennsylvaniaOhio line, the crappie creel limit is dropping and a minimum size of 9 inches will be enforced starting Jan. 1. Last month, the Fish and Boat Commission redesignated the lake as part of the Panfish Enhancement Program and reduced the creel limit from 50 to 20. The change is intended to boost the white crappie population, which has been dropping since 2010, and increase the size of black and white crappies. In a statement, Fish and Boat said a THIS WEEK: I support expanded Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania. • Yes • No • LAST WEEK: In light of the continued decline in quality pheasant habitat, Pennsylvania should drop its $5 million pheasant-stocking program. 2017 survey of 138 anglers found that 89 percent of those who identified themselves as crappie anglers preferred the 9inch minimum size, and 71 percent wanted a 20-per-day total catch.
Fish and Boat will hold a meeting on changing panfish regulations at Shenango River Lake at 7 p.m. May 23 at the Hadley Rod and Gun Club in Mercer County.
Last year a consumption advisory was issued for all fish species taken below the lake in Mercer and Lawrence counties. Fish and Boat and the Pennsylvania departments of Agriculture and Environmental Protection set the “Do Not Eat” advisory after the discovery of extremely high levels of the toxic chemical polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB). PCBs can remain toxic for many years after their release into the environment. The advisory includes all fish taken between Shenango Lake Dam and the river’s confluence with the Beaver River at New Castle. That section’s Stocked Trout Waters Open to Year-Round Fishing designation also was removed.
First fish
Pittsburgh Public Works is working with the state Fish and Boat Commission to open new fishing opportunities in the city. The department’s first stocking of warmwater game fish in Carnegie Lake at Highland Park is expected to occur Thursday. Walleye, largemouth bass, channel catfish and bluegills will be stocked on two dates to make it easier for the city and Pittsburgh Casting club to buy fish. It is unusual for a municipality to purchase fish for a public stocking, but the decision to rehabilitate the 2acre pond was made after Fish and Boat had set its 2018 stocking schedule.