Hey, there! Log in / Register
Governor gets ready for ceremonial first fish toss of his administration
By adamg on Wed, 05/06/2015 - 11:51am
Shamus Moynihan was on hand this morning as Charlie Baker made his first appearance as governor at the annual restocking of Jamaica Pond.
Although it at first looked like Baker was going to learn from Deval Patrick's first try at tossing a fish and just not do it, lest he get slapped around, Baker, in fact, grabbed himself a mini-leviathan and, with some trouble, tossed it into the pond.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Glad there are fish there but...
The state spends X amount to hatch and grow these good sized fish and stock the pond. And then WHAM there are immediately a ton of people who show up at the pond with rod and reel to get a free fish dinner. It's hardly even sporting. They should just raise the fish, filet them and have an annual fish cookout at the pond, hosted by the governor.
Isn't it break-even?
Isn't this fully covered by fishing license fees?
I doubt it
But if you can show me otherwise, I'd feel better.
I don't know.
I don't know. I do know that's the way it's theoretically supposed to work.
You can feel better. No
You can feel better. No state general fund money is used to run the entire dept, including fish stocking.
The federal grant money comes largely from taxes on hunting and fishing equipment and boat fuel. About 3/4 billion goes to the states each year to support fish and wildlife.
Nice review here:
http://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/state-wildlife-conservation
$27.50 per freshwater license
$27.50 per freshwater license. What else would they use the money for?
People who fish don't do it so they can eat fish for dinner
People who fish don't do it so they can eat fish for dinner. It's a leisure pastime, and like every single other leisure pastime, it doesn't make logical sense: people do it because they enjoy it. For those who want "sporting", there's plenty of that available.
It's like playing roulette
But with worms
Slapped by a fish?
How much did he really learn?
Looks like he had his own trouble with a fish:
http://mapoliwithanimals.tumblr.com/post/118292957091/governor-charlie-b...
That's a big &^%$ing fish
I'm pretty sure that's what some guy in the background says at about 0:45 of the Patrick video. Editor!!!!!
Confused!
I'm confused. The trout stocking in Jamaica Pond happened on the week of April 13 (http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dfg/dfw/hunting-fishing-wildlife-watchi...).
How did this supposedly happen today?
it DID happen today
And I was there. Fish & Wildlife staff filled 5 gallon buckets with two or three fish at the truck and then school kids from Curley K-8 carried them downhill to the pond's edge where they passed said bucket to the Gubna standing in the pond wearing stylin' waders. He then turned and tossed the bucket o' fish contents in the general direction of the 5 or 6 photographers standing in deeper water and passed the bucket back. This procedure was repeated over and over until the kids all got turns and some 1,000 rainbow, brook, brown and tiger trout were released. One or two were hand-tossed for the photo op guys.
Everybody seemed to have fun: kids, Gubna, the fisherman who caught and released two lunkers while all this was going on, this observer, and that kindly local gentleman who dresses as Frederick Law Olmsted for many Emerald Necklace events like this.
As the guy who took this pic,
As the guy who took this pic, I can promise you that this happened today.
The stocking was _supposed_ to happen...
... on the earlier date specified in the advance schedule -- but that same schedule reminds its readers that actual dates might change.
Jamaica Pond is stocked a
Jamaica Pond is stocked a number of times in the spring. The event with the gov was one of those times, but is not necessarily the first stocking of the year.
It is true that fishing license fees and a tax on fishing equipment is the source of funding that supports hatcheries, fish management programs and studies and angler education programs across the state. General tax funds do not figure in this work.