There is an art to catching catfish
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The state Fish and Boat Commission will hold two educational catfish expos 4-6 p.m. July 28 and July 29 at the Boathouse Pond at North Park. On both days Fish and Boat staff will offer free instruction on catfish biology, catfish angling and how to cleanand cook them.
“The Commission is committed to providing youth and their mentors with opportunities to learn fishing skills and participate in special Mentored Youth Days,” said John Arway, Fish and Boat executive director, in a statement. “These programs are specifically designed to show kids who live in urban environments that there are good fishing opportunities close to their cities.”
The expo programs will be followed by Mentored Youth fishing opportunities available only to kids with free Mentored Youth fishing permits or voluntary youth fishing licenses available for $1 at GoneFishingPA.com. To qualify, kids under age 16 must fish with an adult mentor age 16 or older. The special youth fishing will follow the July 28 expo until 11 p.m., and continue from dawn through 11 p.m. July 29. Properly licensed youth can harvest two cats per day.
CWD research
A new method of disease surveillance might help scientists and wildlife managers to detect chronic wasting disease earlier in whitetailed deer. In most cases CWD monitoring is done through random sampling of dead deer, which makes it difficult to get sufficient sample sizes needed to detect the disease.
In a paper published in the Journal of Applied Ecology in June, researchers with the National Park Service developed and tested a new statistical model targeting the remains of animals at higher risk of contracting CWD. The weighted sampling protocol, researchers said, will enable wildlife managers to sample fewer deer at less cost and obtain better results.
The state Game Commission and commercial deer farm operators agree that to curb the further spread of chronic wasting disease, wild deerand captive deer must be separated. Scientists at the The Penn State Deer Research Center near State College are working on a study focused on reducing the high cost of exclusionary fencing, testing the effectiveness of electric fencing inside and outside the farm’s exterior fences.