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Speaker 1: From Mediators World News Headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is

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Speaker 1: Cal's weekend review, presented by Steel. Steel products are available

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Speaker 1: only at authorized dealers. For more, go to steel Dealers

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Speaker 1: dot com. Now here's your host, Ryan cal Callahan.

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Speaker 2: Officials at a North Carolina fishing tournament made the controversial

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Speaker 2: decision last week to disqualify what would have been the

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Speaker 2: winning six hundred and nineteen pound blue marlin. The enormous

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Speaker 2: fish was caught by the boat Sensation and beat the

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Speaker 2: next largest fish by about one hundred and thirty five pounds. However,

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Speaker 2: the organizers of the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament decided

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Speaker 2: to disqualify the catch due to quote mutilation caused by

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Speaker 2: a shark or other marine mammal. The mutilation occurred before

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Speaker 2: the crew landed the fish, and photos of the marlin

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Speaker 2: show sizable wounds on its tail and abdomen. Several of

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Speaker 2: you sent me the story, and the consensus on social

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Speaker 2: media agreed that Sensation got cheated out of three and

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Speaker 2: a half million dollars, which was the prize money at

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Speaker 2: the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tourney. A fish that has

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Speaker 2: been partially eaten by shark weighs less than it would

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Speaker 2: have otherwise, so it's understandable to wonder why this would

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Speaker 2: disqualify a fish in any kind of tournament. The Big

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Speaker 2: Rock Tournament organizers explained that they're following a rule laid

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Speaker 2: out by the International Game Fish Association, or IGFA. The

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Speaker 2: IGFA says that this rule is on the books because

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Speaker 2: a mutilated fish isn't fighting to its full potential. If

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Speaker 2: it's been injured by a boat or a shark, it'll

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Speaker 2: theoretically be easier to land than a fish that's totally healthy.

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Speaker 2: An old, healed wound does not disqualify fish, nor do

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Speaker 2: recent injuries caused by leaders or lines. Tournament officials apparently

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Speaker 2: decided that the wounds on this fish were recent, and

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Speaker 2: they do look pretty gnarly in the photos. To add

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Speaker 2: insult to injury, these sensation crew likely won't even sample

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Speaker 2: their disqualified fish. Local media reports from years past indicate

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Speaker 2: the large marlin are sent to local schools like North

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Speaker 2: Carolina State University and are used for research purposes, not

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Speaker 2: that they'd want to consume the entire five hundred pounds

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Speaker 2: of meat anyway. Large, long lived predatory ocean fish can

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Speaker 2: contain high levels of mercury. And other toxins. Marlin aren't

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Speaker 2: known for excellent table fare, but they do make great

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Speaker 2: smoked fish and sausage. Still, I hope the Sensation crew

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Speaker 2: appreciated the experience, which is likely a small comfort compared

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Speaker 2: to three and a half million dollars and the fact

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Speaker 2: that they're unlikely to hook into a fish that large

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Speaker 2: again anytime soon. According to nat GEO, the average adult

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Speaker 2: blue marlin runs between two and four hundred pounds. The

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Speaker 2: larger blue marlin are almost always female. Now for the

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Speaker 2: folks at the IGFA, when you consider that an above

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Speaker 2: average fish that no longer gets to swim anymore still

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Speaker 2: outweighs the next largest fish in a tournament, again, that

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Speaker 2: is not catching release. I mean, who the hell cares?

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Speaker 2: I mean, with three and a half million dollars on

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Speaker 2: the line, I get that. You know, people really care,

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Speaker 2: but it's just not about the fish anymore. Kids. Any

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Speaker 2: angler will tell you that the ultimate test is being

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Speaker 2: able to be a fishy enough person to weed out

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Speaker 2: the small fish before they bite and get a bite

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Speaker 2: no matter what. So, IGFA, I got a boned pick

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Speaker 2: with you, a y bone. In fact, this week the

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Speaker 2: crime desk grabed moose legislation and CWD. But first, I'm

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Speaker 2: going to tell you about my week in My week

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Speaker 2: was great. Met the family for a rainy, cold camp out,

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Speaker 2: which is a really good thing For the Eve of July.

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Speaker 2: We hit the lake in the canoe, caught several Arctic

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Speaker 2: grayling on the fly rod, and one big burbat, which

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Speaker 2: happened to be my first open water burbot ever. That

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Speaker 2: guy hit a twister tail hooked on a pounder jig

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Speaker 2: somewhere in the icy depths of forty feet or so.

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Speaker 2: I was thrilled. Cold water fisheries with cold water fish

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Speaker 2: native to Montana is an increasingly rare treat. In fact,

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Speaker 2: just downstream of the lake you couldn't keep the non

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Speaker 2: native and invasive brook trout off of the fly We

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Speaker 2: woke up the next morning to snow and the reminder

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Speaker 2: that I had not gotten around to reinstalling the furnace

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Speaker 2: in the old Black series camper. So it was a

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Speaker 2: chilli morning of wet snow on the canoe, cold hands,

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Speaker 2: hot coffee, and one last game of cribbage before hitting

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Speaker 2: the road. I hope you all had a good one too.

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Speaker 2: Outside of that, on the old work front, I ripped

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Speaker 2: over to Sheridan, Wyoming, home of Weatherby to work with

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Speaker 2: the team over there on some new offerings in both

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Speaker 2: the rifle and scattergun categories that will turn a lot

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Speaker 2: of heads by both their looks and performance. After the

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Speaker 2: office and the manufacturing floor, we hit the range, rang

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Speaker 2: a bunch of steel with the rifle, and dusted a

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Speaker 2: lot of clays in the high Wyoming wind. Very exciting

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Speaker 2: stuff coming up. You really got to pay attention. They're

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Speaker 2: doing amazing things over there. Moving on to the crime desk,

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Speaker 2: game wardens in Montana are asking for the public's help

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Speaker 2: in identifying the person who shot and killed the grizzly

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Speaker 2: bear in the Cabinet Mountains in the northwestern part of

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Speaker 2: the state. Wildlife officials discovered the bear because it was

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Speaker 2: wearing a GPS collar. The adult male grizz had been

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Speaker 2: collared for research purposes, and officials say it did not

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Speaker 2: have a history of conflicts with humans. The bear was

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Speaker 2: part of a small population of about sixty grizz in

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Speaker 2: the Cabinet yak Selkirk recovery areas. Researchers are tracking these

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Speaker 2: bears closely in the hopes that they will expand and

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Speaker 2: start to breed with the bears and surrounding areas such

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Speaker 2: as the Northern Continental Divide ecosystem to the east. It's

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Speaker 2: a federal crime to kill a grizzly bear in the

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Speaker 2: lower forty eight. Of course, there's exceptions for self defense.

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Speaker 2: Hopefully game wardens are able to get to the bottom

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Speaker 2: of this one, but if you have any info, go

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Speaker 2: ahead and give him a call. Also, for those of

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Speaker 2: you not aware, the Cabinet Mountains are the only mountain

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Speaker 2: range in Montana you can put your dishes in. This

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Speaker 2: story stretches the definition of wildlife crime, but I thought

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Speaker 2: it was worthy of a quick mention. South Carolinian used

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Speaker 2: a toy pistol from the Nintendo Duck Hunt video game

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Speaker 2: to rob a business. According to the York County Sheriff's Office,

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Speaker 2: twenty five year old David Joseph Delasandro rolled into a

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Speaker 2: quick Stop convenience store earlier this month, wearing a mask,

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Speaker 2: wig and hoodie. He showed the clerk the spray painted

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Speaker 2: gun in the waistband of his pants, and either the

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Speaker 2: clerk didn't notice it was a fake gun, or he's

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Speaker 2: just not paid enough to do anything about it. Either way,

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Speaker 2: Delasandro got away with about three hundred bucks. But he

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Speaker 2: wasn't about to drop the money on drugs or a

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Speaker 2: nice steak dinner. No, this guy is more practical. Deputies

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Speaker 2: located Delasandro a short time later in the parking lot

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Speaker 2: of a Dollar General down the street. He's been charged

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Speaker 2: with arm robbery with the deadly weapon, petty larceny, and

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Speaker 2: of quote wearing masks and the like, which is a

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Speaker 2: new one on me. The duck hunt pistol isn't actually deadly,

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Speaker 2: of course, but South Carolina law considers anything a deadly

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Speaker 2: weapon if you pretend that it is. Delsandro is lucky

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Speaker 2: there wasn't another quick stop customer armed with a real

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Speaker 2: deadly weapon who decided to restore law and order and

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Speaker 2: share in South Carolina. Hopefully the would be robber uses

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Speaker 2: this as an opportunity to take a hard look at

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Speaker 2: his life and pick up some new hobbies, like actual

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Speaker 2: duck hunting. He seems to have at least some interest

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Speaker 2: in waterfowl. Moving across the pond of France, a man

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Speaker 2: has admitted to killing a woman with a hunting rifle,

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Speaker 2: and what may be the worst drinking game ever devised

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Speaker 2: by an adult beverage Apparently, the pair decided to put

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Speaker 2: on a bulletproof vest and shoot at one another with

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Speaker 2: a rifle. The forty seven year old woman went first,

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Speaker 2: and she was found dead of a gunshot wound to

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Speaker 2: the stomach. The fifty five year old man turned himself

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Speaker 2: into police, and he quote severe state of drunkenness the

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Speaker 2: same day. This story was first reported earlier this month

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Speaker 2: by the friend Bunch media outlet AFP, but it doesn't

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Speaker 2: appear that there have been any further developments. It's unclear

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Speaker 2: what charges the man might face, what caliber of rifle

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Speaker 2: he was using, or why they didn't consider beer pong

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Speaker 2: sufficiently exciting. Returning to more traditional wildlife crime, five Wisconsin

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Speaker 2: men and one Texas resident were hit with a total

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Speaker 2: of fifty seven charges for poaching hundreds of shovel nose

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Speaker 2: sturgeon and harvesting their row. Roe row is the mass

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Speaker 2: of eggs contained in the ovaries of fish. Any female

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Speaker 2: fish can have row, but only fish from the sturgeon

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Speaker 2: family are considered you know, fancy pants caviar. Their row

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Speaker 2: can sell for as much as forty five bucks and outs.

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Speaker 2: The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources first received a tip

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Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen that men had been illegally killing sturgeon

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Speaker 2: in Pool number nine of the Mississippi River. The investigation

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Speaker 2: that lasted the next two years included hundreds of hours

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Speaker 2: of surveillance and documentation. Game wardens found that the men

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Speaker 2: would catch female sturgeon, harvest the row, and throw the

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Speaker 2: carcasses back into the river, which obviously makes them horrible people.

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Speaker 2: Vladimirras parsikovas Soma Miller RTM Miller received the harshest punishments.

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Speaker 2: They will all have to pay over two thousand dollars

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Speaker 2: in fines in restitution and have their hunting and fishing

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Speaker 2: privileges suspended for the next ten years. Shovel no. Sturgeon

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Speaker 2: are a slow growing species that may spawn just three

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Speaker 2: or four times in their lifetime, so it's important for

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Speaker 2: game wardens to crack down whenever they hear about sturgeon poaching.

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Speaker 2: Hopefully the penalties are enough to dissuade these jokers from

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Speaker 2: doing this again. If they want caviaar, they should do

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Speaker 2: it like the rest of us. Get a spoon bill

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Speaker 2: tag or go to a state where it's legal to

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Speaker 2: harvest spoon bill otherwise known as paddlefish and make it yourselves, Yes, sissies.

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Speaker 2: Speaking of regret, poachers and Hawaii have finished off a

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Speaker 2: passel of pigs at a local country club in Oahu,

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Speaker 2: and the club's managers want answers. We covered this story

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Speaker 2: back in episode two oh three, and I'm sorry to

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Speaker 2: say there's been an unfortunate update. The pigs lived on

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Speaker 2: the golf course and surrounding countryside, where the manager said

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Speaker 2: they fed on invasive plants, but poachers have been going

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Speaker 2: after the pigs for years, and they killed five piglets

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Speaker 2: in February. In this latest incident, local media reports that

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Speaker 2: poachers killed the four piglets that survived the first shooting.

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Speaker 2: The country club put up signs warning trespassers and they're

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Speaker 2: asking for harsher punishments for poachers in the area. Pigs

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Speaker 2: are a major issue to landscape, agriculture, ground nesting birds,

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Speaker 2: vehicle collisions. On top of that, they're typically delicious in Hawaii,

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Speaker 2: and the culture typically supports killing and eating pigs, So

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Speaker 2: good luck over there at Oahu country Club. We'll end

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Speaker 2: up with another update from a story we covered back

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Speaker 2: in episode one ninety nine. Major General Kenneth Camper, commanding

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Speaker 2: General at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, was suspended from duty back

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Speaker 2: in February. The Army was cagy about the exact reason,

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Speaker 2: but it was rumored that the major general had violated

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Speaker 2: the base's hunting rules. According to another officer stationed at

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Speaker 2: the base, Camper had killed elk and deer out of season,

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Speaker 2: shot at animals from his vehicle, and killed the animals

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Speaker 2: at night in residential neighborhoods. The Army still isn't admitting

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Speaker 2: to Camper's violation, but they did just permanently relieve him

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Speaker 2: from duty. A spokesperson said that Camper had been removed

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Speaker 2: due to a quote loss of trust and confidence in

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Speaker 2: his ability to command. Camper is awaiting reassignment and remains

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Speaker 2: in the Fort Sill area. Meanwhile, there have been significant

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Speaker 2: changes to some of the bases hunting and shooting policies.

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Speaker 2: One of the shooting ranges has been closed since February,

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Speaker 2: the use of center fire rifles to target pigs and

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Speaker 2: coyotes has been banned, and the head of the wildlife

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Speaker 2: department has left along with most of his staff. It's

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Speaker 2: unclear exactly which of these changes was the result of

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Speaker 2: the General's activities, but an officer at the base tells

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Speaker 2: me he suspects the fall hunting season will look very

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Speaker 2: different now that camper has left. Moving on to the

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Speaker 2: CWD chronic wasting disease desk, chronic wasting disease has been

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Speaker 2: discovered in a Florida whitetail for the first time. That

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Speaker 2: always fatal brain disease was first discovered in wild deer

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Speaker 2: in Colorado in nineteen eighty one, possibly early as the

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Speaker 2: sixties in Wyoming or Colorado. It's been working its way

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Speaker 2: through the country ever since. It's highly concentrated in some

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Speaker 2: western and Midwestern states, but the Southeast has largely been spared.

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Speaker 2: That might be coming to an end. The Florida Fish

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Speaker 2: and Wildlife Conservation Commission confirmed that last week, a road

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Speaker 2: killed four and a half year old white tailed dough

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Speaker 2: tested positive for chronic wasting disease in Holmes County. The

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Speaker 2: test was conducted as part of routine surveillance activities, and

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Speaker 2: the Commission has activated its CWD response plan. The first

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Speaker 2: step in that plan is to figure out how far

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Speaker 2: the disease has spread. The Commission will collect samples from

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Speaker 2: specific established zones to further assess the spread of the disease.

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Speaker 2: The results from this initial sampling effort will inform resource

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Speaker 2: managers so they can react with appropriate management strategies. If

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Speaker 2: they don't find another case, they will presumably continue monitoring

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Speaker 2: without making significant changes. If they discover that the disease

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Speaker 2: has spread, those areas can expect to see changes to

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Speaker 2: hunting regulations and reporting requirements. There are currently thirty one

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Speaker 2: states that have reported positive cases of CWD. It's also

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Speaker 2: been confirmed in four Canadian provinces, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and

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Speaker 2: South Korea. There is no cure or way to eradicate it,

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Speaker 2: so the best that wildlife managers can do is try

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Speaker 2: to control the spread, which is where you come in.

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Speaker 2: Keep hunting, keep having your deer tested, leave the spinal

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Speaker 2: column and brain as much of that brain cavity as

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Speaker 2: you possibly can in the field, remove those lymph nodes

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Speaker 2: for testing, bag up that head, if you must, take

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Speaker 2: it out of the field so you're not spreading little

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Speaker 2: prions around. And for now, that's really enough, not all

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Speaker 2: that difficult. We don't know exactly how to combat CWD,

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Speaker 2: but we do know some effective ways of slowing the spread,

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Speaker 2: so eventually we can know a bunch about it. And

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Speaker 2: of course you really shouldn't be artificially concentrating wildlife around

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Speaker 2: you know, things like bait piles. Okay, moving on to

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Speaker 2: the moose desk. Speaking of infectious diseases, biologists in Alaska

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Speaker 2: have found that what they believe is the first moose

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Speaker 2: to ever test positive for rabies in North America. Alaska

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Speaker 2: Department of Fishing Game staff based in the Gnome area

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Speaker 2: received several reports on June second of a moose acting

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Speaker 2: aggressively towards people. It was unbalanced, stumbling, drooling profusely, and

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Speaker 2: had bare patches of skin. The moose was killed and

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Speaker 2: the body was burned, but at first biologists collected samples

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Speaker 2: and sent them away for testing. Tests confirmed that the

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Speaker 2: moose was infected with an Arctic fox variant of the

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Speaker 2: rabies virus. This is the same variant that it caused

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Speaker 2: an outbreak in red foxes and Arctic foxes in this

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Speaker 2: area last winter, so biologists believe the moose was likely

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Speaker 2: bitten by a rabid fox. Scientists don't believe the moose

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Speaker 2: population in this area is likely to see a rabies

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Speaker 2: outbreak anytime soon. Moose tend to be solitary, so even

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Speaker 2: if an individual moose contracts the disease, it probably won't

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Speaker 2: spread it to its fellow ungulates. This desire for solitude

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Speaker 2: is likely why the animals rarely contract rabies in the

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Speaker 2: first place. Also, as the Eli Fournier explains in an

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Speaker 2: article for the Meat eater dot Com, foxes are the

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Speaker 2: main reservoir for the disease In Alaska. Foxes rarely bite moose,

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Speaker 2: and so moose rarely contract the disease. While moose have

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Speaker 2: been tested in South Dakota, Minnesota, and Canada, this is

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Speaker 2: the first positive rabies case in North America. The folks

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Speaker 2: in Nome had good reason to be concerned. Moose are

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Speaker 2: dangerous enough without having a fatal brain disease that makes

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Speaker 2: them lose all sense of fear. Besides a grizzly bear,

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Speaker 2: a moose with rabies is just about the last thing

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Speaker 2: I want to run into in the woods. The Lascat

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Speaker 2: Department of Fish and Game says that hunters in the

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Speaker 2: area should feel safe to consume moose meat if the

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Speaker 2: animal is acting normally and doesn't show any other signs

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Speaker 2: of illness. However, hunters should avoid approaching an animal, even

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Speaker 2: a dead animal, if they suspect it has rabies. Rabies

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Speaker 2: is primarily transmitted through saliva and nervous tissue, and the

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Speaker 2: virus dies at temperatures above one hundred and twenty two

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Speaker 2: degrees fahrenheit, so the risk of contracting rabies comes during

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Speaker 2: the cleaning and butchering process rather than while eating. Still,

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Speaker 2: as we covered in a previous episode, there is no

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Speaker 2: cure for rabies, and it is always fatal once the

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Speaker 2: virus gets established. That's probably not a risk you should take,

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Speaker 2: even for five hundred pounds of moose meat. Moving on

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Speaker 2: to the legislative desk, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department

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Speaker 2: has proposed increasing mountain lion quotas by about fifty percent

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Speaker 2: in areas with hard hit mule deer populations. We've covered

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Speaker 2: on this podcast previously how this year's snow fall was

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Speaker 2: tough on deer and antelope numbers. In some areas of Wyoming,

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Speaker 2: this winter kill killed two thirds of all adult deer.

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Speaker 2: To help those numbers rebound, wildlife officials have proposed increasing

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Speaker 2: the mount lion quota from forty six to seventy cats

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Speaker 2: in four Wyoming and Salt River Range hunt areas. Taking

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Speaker 2: more predators off the landscape will theoretically help more mule

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Speaker 2: deer survive until adulthood. That may well be true, and

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Speaker 2: I definitely defer to game and fish biologists who understand

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Speaker 2: this area better than anyone, but Wyoming hunters should keep

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Speaker 2: a few things in mind as they engage in the

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Speaker 2: public comment process over the next few months. First, not

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Speaker 2: all mountain lion hunters like the idea of increasing quotas

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Speaker 2: on their favorite target animal. One houndsman also told Wyofile

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Speaker 2: that the quotas in these units don't usually fill anyway.

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Speaker 2: I haven't confirmed this statement, but if it's true, it

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Speaker 2: would obviously limit the efficacy of this plan. A study

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Speaker 2: by a mountain lion advocacy group also claims that targeting

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Speaker 2: mount lions doesn't actually do much to help deer populations.

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Speaker 2: Lyon hunters tend to target large male lions, but these

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Speaker 2: lions feed on elk more often than deer. The younger,

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Speaker 2: smaller lions that prefer deer are still in the landscape,

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Speaker 2: but now they have even less competition from their larger cousins.

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Speaker 2: I for one, would absolutely love to see the stats

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Speaker 2: on this. I got to dig into it. Mountain lions

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Speaker 2: are incredibly effective deer predators. Of course, any study conducted

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Speaker 2: by an advocacy organization. We're going to take with a

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Speaker 2: large grain of salt, which is great on mountain lion stakes.

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Speaker 2: Wyoming Game and Fish Department director Brian Nesvik said back

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Speaker 2: in April, quote, I do believe that a potential exists

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Speaker 2: to provide a more rapid rebound by targeting predator species.

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Speaker 2: It's certainly not absolute, but the potential exists. The good

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Speaker 2: news is that Wyoming residents will have a chance to

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Speaker 2: weigh in. Wyoming Game and Fish is hosting a series

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Speaker 2: of meetings through June and July, and residents can also

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Speaker 2: submit comments online through August fourth. We'll post a link

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Speaker 2: with those details at the meat eater dot com forward

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Speaker 2: slash cow. In Illinois, public land users are pushing a

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Speaker 2: bill that would expand access to waterways in the state.

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Speaker 2: Current Illinois law is pretty restrictive when it comes to

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Speaker 2: water access rights. Illinois has just over eighty seven thousand

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Speaker 2: miles of rivers and streams within its borders, but just

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Speaker 2: over one thousand miles designated as public for use by everyone.

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Speaker 2: House Bill fifteen sixty eight would allow public access to

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Speaker 2: a lake, river, or stream that is capable of supporting

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Speaker 2: use by commercial or recreational watercraft for a substantial part

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Speaker 2: of the year. This wouldn't allow anglers or kayakers to

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Speaker 2: touch private land on either bank, but it would prohibit

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Speaker 2: landowners from restricting access to these streams and rivers unless

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Speaker 2: they win in court. Way to go Illinois, We'll end

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Speaker 2: with some great news from Rhode Island. The state legislature

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Speaker 2: just sent a bill to the Governor's desk that clarify

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Speaker 2: shoreline access in the state. Current law and court precedent

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Speaker 2: made it unclear precisely where public land users were allowed

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Speaker 2: to access a public beach. This bill explains that the

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Speaker 2: public can access up to ten feet landward of the

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Speaker 2: recognizable high tideline, and it offers ways for the public

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Speaker 2: to determine exactly where that line is. It does not

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Speaker 2: allow access on private lawns, sea walls, or other shoreline infrastructure,

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Speaker 2: but it should help reduce conflicts between shoreline property owners

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Speaker 2: and the public on the state's four hundred miles of coastline.

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Speaker 2: Big hat tip to the New England Chapter of Backcountry

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Speaker 2: Hunters and Anglers, especially Michael Woods. The bill passed both

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Speaker 2: chambers by wide margins and is now headed to the

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Speaker 2: Governor's desk. If you'd like to get involved, tell Governor

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Speaker 2: Dan McKee that you'd like him to sign each five one,

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Speaker 2: seven four. That's all I've got for you this week.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening. Remember to write in

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Speaker 2: to a s K.

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Speaker 1: C A L.

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Speaker 2: That's an askcal at the Meat Eater dot com and

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Speaker 2: let me know what's going on in your neck of

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Speaker 2: the woods. On top of that, if you're ready to

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Speaker 2: get outside and burn the old bald dome, it's summer,

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Speaker 2: so head on down to your local steel dealer. You're

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Speaker 2: gonna get you set up with what you need. They

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Speaker 2: won't send you home with what you don't, even if

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Speaker 2: you're working in the yard. It's a heck of a

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Speaker 2: lot better than working inside. Thanks again, we'll talk to

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Speaker 2: you sir,