Chumming

Abstract: PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus for both chumming for fish and gathering fish which enables efficiently and effectively chumming for fish, gathering fish and feeding bait in angling, fish capture with a fishing net, feeding cultured fish or the like. SOLUTION: This apparatus 1 for both chumming for fish and gathering fish features being composed of a fish-gathering case 2 installed at an optional position under water, a water-conveying pump 4 connected with the case 2 and a bait-feeding box 3 for supplying bait to conveyed water by the pump 4 and for mixing the bait with the water, and having a structure that the case 2 receives the pump 4-conveyed wetter mixed with bait within the case itself and has a group of bait-scattering holes 6 for scattering the bait-mixed water outside the case in case walls 7 to chum for fish under water by releasing the bait-mixed and conveyed water from the holes 6.

Abstract: "[H]istory reveals not merely that change is real but also that change is various. All change is not the same, nor are all changes equal. Some changes are cyclical, some are not. Some changes are linear, others are not. Some changes take an afternoon to accomplish, some a millennium. We can no more take any particular kind of change as absolutely normative than we can take any particular state of equilibrium as normative . . . . The challenge is to determine which changes are in our enlightened self-interest and are consistent with our most rigorous ethical reasoning, always remembering our inescapable dependency on other forms of life." INTRODUCTION Estuaries like the Chesapeake Bay ("Bay") and Puget Sound are in grave trouble. They each suffer from poor water quality, loss of habitat, and declining biodiversity, and efforts to restore their health are straining both public and private resources.2 While accomplishments are often recorded in the fight against these ills, it is clear these accomplishments "are not yet equal to the scale of the problems."3 The focus of this article is on the nation's largest estuary, the Bay. Despite the investment of billions of dollars to improve water quality,4 the Bay continues to suffer from severe environmental degradation that impairs statutorily protected uses such as "[t]he growth and propagation of fish (other than trout), other aquatic life, and wildlife."5 Among the most serious of the ills afflicting the Bay's water quality is nullification.6 Nutrification, which lowers dissolved oxygen levels in the water, sets off positive feedback loops7 further eroding the Bay's health. This article brings to the fore a largely overlooked source of the Bay's nutrification problem: the practice of chumming. Chumming involves dumping a slurry of decomposed or decomposing baitfish, usually menhaden, over the side of a boat to attract highly-prized game species like striped bass. The practice is widely used by Maryland's recreational fishing industry, which is an important part of Maryland's economy.8 Chum contributes to the Bay's serious nutrient enrichment problem by increasing biological oxygen demand, resulting in lower dissolved oxygen levels in the water.9 It also increases water turbidity and may be a source of bacterial disease in striped bass. The use of menhaden as baitfish is also contributing to the decline in populations of that critically important food and filter fish. Even though chumming adversely affects the Bay's water quality and threatens its biodiversity, neither the federal government nor Maryland currently regulates the practice. While Bay area regulators may believe that they have made an economically rational decision to attend to larger targets of opportunity such as nutrient discharges from sewage treatment plants and farm fields, the high cost and political flashpoints of addressing those large sources of nutrients have largely paralyzed legislators and regulators for nearly two decades.10 The result is that the Bay's nutrification problem is getting worse, and the bill for addressing the problem is getting bigger. The reluctance of regulators to address small sources of environmental problems, or even small environmental problems, is not unusual and is what makes the chumming story relevant to those who live outside the Bay's watershed. The premise of this article is that the failure of regulators to regulate chumming originates through a misapprehension about how complex natural systems like estuaries behave and also in an over-dependence on economic analytical methodologies, like bioeconomics and cost-benefit analysis. Economic approaches measure success based on the amount of pollutants taken out of the waste stream and undervalue broader, more difficult-to-quantify improvements to the receiving environment. Because economic approaches depend on factors remaining stable, they are also singularly ill-suited to constantly changing natural systems. …

Abstract: A method, apparatus and all natural bait for trap fishing of crustaceans in the form of dried bait cakes having ground fish parts and a binder of a high bloom number gelatin blended in hot water, which gelatin acts as a binding agent for a dry bait with a finished hardness for insertio n in a trap bait bag. This bait - when fished in crustacean-bearing waters - results in a naturally eroding bait which provides a slow release of small fish particles for chumming purposes, while larger re-hydrated fish pieces remain contained in the bait bag.

Abstract: White sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) are circumglobally distributed large apex predators. While ecologically important, there is very limited study of their social behaviour. Although evident in other large, apex marine predators (e.g. toothed whales) and smaller elasmobranchs (e.g. blacktip reef sharks), the ability of any large pelagic elasmobranch to demonstrate social preferences, tolerance or grouping behaviour is largely unknown. Here, we test whether white sharks in a near-coastal environment form non-random associations with other conspecifics or simply share the same space at the same time. We photo-identified 323 individuals—74 % juvenile females (175–300 cm)—during chumming events at six different sites in Mossel Bay, South Africa, over a 6-year period (2008–2013), and tested for grouping behaviour. We found evidence for random associations among individuals, though spatio-temporal co-occurrence of white sharks in close proximity was weakly structured according to sex and, potentially, body size. Such biological traits may play a minor part in structuring co-occurrence of individuals at fine spatio-temporal scales, which could reflect ontogenetic preferences in diet and site fidelity, or differing tolerance levels for conspecifics of different sexes and sizes. Our study strengthens the evidence that large pelagic shark species are generally solitary and display limited social behaviour. Large pelagic shark species are important top predators, but we know little about their social behaviour. We tested the ability of white sharks (C. carcharias) to form groups and display social preferences for other individuals when they congregate at scavenging events in a coastal environment, where social interactions may be more likely. We found that white sharks co-occur at random, displaying no preferred or avoided associations for other individuals. Nevertheless, there was a minor influence of biological traits, with individuals aggregating according to gender and, possibly, body size. While we hypothesise these effects could represent preferences in diet and site fidelity, or more tolerance for similar-sized individuals of the same sex, our study strengthens the evidence that white sharks are mostly solitary foragers.