00:00:09 Speaker 1: From Mediator's World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Kel's we can review with Ryan kel Kell in now Here's Kel drop the moss balls, take me alive, Coppers don't go it, And by drop I mean destroy destroy the moss balls. Invasive zebra muscles have been found in twenty one states, not in the water wells of boats, but in pet stores. The invasive muscle has like a truly successful parasite hidden inside moss balls, which are commonly used in aquariums and distributed throughout pet stores. Hell of a strategy. Zebra muscles, a highly adaptive invasive mollusk, were first discovered in the Great Lakes. Since then, state and federal agencies, including the U s GS, have spent millions of dollars trying to mitigate their spread. Zebra muscles are fingernail sized mollusks that are native to Eurasia. They filter out algae that native species need for food, and they attached to and incapacitate native muscles. As a reminder our native freshwater muscles are for the most part threatened or endangered. In addition, these muscles attached to boats, crops, power plants, ropes, generally make a mess of things, which all cost pretty penny to remove. It is interesting to know that the presence of zebra muscles really do clean the water up. But again, what may look good to us isn't necessarily good for fish species. That change in the habitat allows more light to penetrate, it warms the water faster, and that tiny little life, that little zooplankton they filter out, is what all of our fish, including all of our game fish, need to eat when they're at their juvenile stage. So if you are in possession of these zebra balls, or as the kids are saying, holding are you a knock? I'm sorry, are you a knock? Ah? I see, I see, okay a narc don't just throw them away. Boil them or freeze them solid for twelve hours. Do not flush them down the toilet or throw them outside. Wrap them in plastic and place them in a landfill bound dumpster. This week we've got dog poop, ancient bacteria, wildlife, crime, access issues, and so much more. But first I'm gonna tell you about my week and my week as well as This podcast is powered by Steel Power Equipment, steel world's most powerful chainsaws. One question I get a lot of is how long do the lithium ion batteries and the electric saws last, which are very expensive. By the way, currently there are a lot of batteries in the field with more than ten years of use, as long as you are not being a knuckle head and you treat these batteries like they should be treated, which means running them from a full charge to zero before charging and keeping them stored in an area where they cannot freeze. The steel lithium ion batteries will go one thousand charging cycles before the capacity drops to about all right, You can use it a thousand times if you follow those rules before you get a reduced charge out of your battery. That is a heck of a lot of cutting, which is why this stuff is expensive. All of that copper in those batteries comes out of the ground and it's a messy business. So we need those batteries to last offset the cost of our natural resources. You dig it anyway, real a big news because you know a lot of really good people work on this stuff as a passion project. Another season, season two, to be specific, of Col's Wee Can Review in the Field is coming to you via both the meat Eater YouTube channel and the meat Eator website. Very interested to see and hear what everyone thinks. We tackle land access in the state of Maine while hunting some woodcock and grouse. Uh no, Snort will not be with me on this episode, but she's gonna get with me in the future and maybe we will get back to Maine. Will bust some brush and stumble through logging slash. We head down to Louisiana, joined my good buddy Jiro Brewer should say Captain Jarreau Brewer for a little triple Tale and New Tria action out on the coast of Louisiana, who are supposed to be there a little longer, but the winds blew me all the way at Araby, which is just outside of New Orleans, where I met up with Jared Serena and got bellied deep in the bayou for hogs and gallon Yule got an eye level perspective on saltwater intrusion and land loss, and the very first episode to air on Tuesday, the six of March. Will be working with Idaho Fish and Game during their grizzly trapping season as they continue on to capture and collar study that was spearheaded really by the Craigheads in nineteen fifty nine. Have you ever hugged a grizzly bear? Well, these folks do every year and it is amazing to see get goose bumps just talking about It's where to God. Then I went down to the south fork of the Snake to meet up with an old buddy, mine George White of World Cast out Fitters, to catch rainbow trout and talk fisheries with Brett High, the Upper Snake Region fisheries manager, and do some electro shocking and netting. I'll tell you right now, Brett's net skills are slightly better than mine. Lots to learn, lots of cool stuff to see. Please do right in and let me know what you think, and hopefully if you like it, where we should go next. Check stuff out. I'm always learning you should be too. Moving on to the mortality desk. In two thousand ten, Japanese scientists sailed to the most remote spot in the ocean, the center of a place called the South Pacific Gear, and took soil borings from the ocean floor. You may have heard of the South Pacific Gear as the location of the world's biggest garbage patch. We don't cover this particular place a whole lot here on the Weekend Review because there are plenty of depressing things to talk about that don't involve a giant patch of garbage. Just to clear this up, maybe be a little more specific. If you fancy yourself a scavenger, maybe a dug through a few garbage piles I have. Well, this spot isn't going to be your spot. You're not gonna find something like old cousin Eddie does and refurbish it how they like yours. Clark Oh, media, rare little thinkings side Oh you're fine, light at dark? Oh, either way, it doesn't matter. The South Pacific garbage patch is roughly the size of Texas, but the garbage is for the most part smaller than grains of rice. This is where plastic and micro fibers end up slowly getting ground into smaller and smaller bits. But that's not what we're talking about. This is a podcast about life, and there ain't no life there. Oh, then no life nowhere. The currents swirling between Australia and South America keep nutrients out of this area. The center of the South Pacific garbage patch is so remote that at certain times the closest human beings are the astronauts passing overhead in the International Space Station. And because this is a spot so far from any shore, there's almost no possibility of any terrestrial plant or animal matter reaching it. So even though it's the ocean, this is a place just as devoid of life as the center of the Sahara, or I should say almost devoid of life. When the Japanese scientists got back to the lab and analyze their sample of dirt, which, by the way, I gotta tell you the technical term for the dirt hold from the sea floor is and listen up, this may be the only thing you learned today. Nano fossil ouze. Pretty awesome, right, What do you work with, mom and dad If it's not nano fossil us take a back seat. Anyway. In the nano fossil Ooze, they discovered signs of ancient bacteria from one hundred million years ago. Now that does sound surprising, but I'm gonna tell you right now that it isn't that surprising. Over the eons and eons of the Earth's history, conditions change so much that fossil lies bacteria is kind of distributed more or less everywhere. What is quite surprising, though, to me anyway, is the little guys were still alive. That's right, after one hundred million years of staying dormant, they woke right up when fed nutrients in a petrie dish, and within about five days they had doubled in number. Now this isn't how aliens started, so calm down, and let's pause here to acknowledge how momentous this is. One hundred million years ago, North America was still in such close geographic proximity with Europe that a particularly ambitious paddler could have traveled from Brazil to Western Africa in a canoe. However, as you know, people were not around yet. In fact, roaming around on land were triceratops and pterosaurs were flying the sky. Our bacterial friends hung out for about forty four million years. They survived the impact of a meteor fifteen kilometers wide that wiped out three quarters of the living things on earth. Seem only unfazed, they continued to persist for another sixty six million years until they got a chance to snack on some carbon and nitrogen in a lab in Yokohama. Kind of a typical story. If you think about it, boy meets dinosaur, boy meats rock boy, sulks on the bottom of the ocean, Taylor's Oldest time. You might think of these bacteria's microbial cockroaches surviving on happily as epics and apocalypses go by. If they were going strong for one hundred million years, what's to prevent them from going for one million more and one hundred million more after that. If this ain't mortality, I'm not sure what is. If you have ever come back from a long trip and maybe forgot about a bag of laundry for a few days, the smell from that bacteria is something fierce. I mean, just so you know, the bacteria is what makes you close smell. It's the bacteria that are well, they're reproducing in there. It's a love fest of bacteria, and that's what the smell is. It's the smell of bacterial love, is what I'm saying. As sex can make. And it's because of this thought that I wonder why the authors of this study neglected to discuss the aroma of one hundred million year old bacteria as it grew in the lab. Is it more or less potent than what we cook up today. Yes, you ate dinosaur skin cells and survived a life ending cosmic event. But people have been doubling and doubling bacteria like in size for a long time while you were just sitting it out on the sea floor in the middle of nowhere. Think about it. Who's tougher? Moving on to the ever popular wildlife crime desk. Three men excited for poaching a thirty four point buck Alex Laughy, Dion Laughy, and Eugene Heisler. One of these things is not like the other one. All from O Claire, Wisconsin, have been charged with multiple wildlife violations. What was unique about this one is the crew posted their poaching success on social media and even thank the landowner for the access. But they had shot the buck before legal shooting light on a property they did not have permission on. Not great bomb Sticking with Wisconsin, Lincoln County Sheriff's deputies issued three citations after breaking up a fight over ice fishing spots, which is the most ice fishing action you'll ever see. A royal oak Michigan Man. Special shout out to my good friend Ryan Thompson, who was quite unfortunately my roommate the last time we worked together in Royal Oak, Michigan. I say unfortunate because let's just say, the motto on the way into town should say, welcome to Royal Oak, Michigan. Don't eat the chili. Where would a comedy show be without a few far jokes anyway? A Royal Oak, Michigan man has been linked to threats of violence against metro Park officers in regards to a deer call in Kensington Metro Park. A coll is a term for an organized killing of animals in such a way that hunt would not be fitting, as in, this is not a chance exercise. The deer call is apparently nothing new in this year. The herd was scheduled to be reduced by fifty animals until seventy one year old man called in threatening to shoot metro Parks officers. Because that makes sense somehow. The Detroit Free Press got this quote from Huron Clinton Metro Parks police chief Michael Reese quote, I've been police chief here for five years and never experienced direct threats towards officers. As a result of the deer management program, we've gotten letter in the mail from individuals not agreeing, and they have never taken it to this extent, which leads me to believe that they must not have social media in this part of Michigan. Seriously. One phone call and some letters that quote disagree, little thin skinned in that part of Michigan. I think metroparks uses third party biologists to manage the deer population. The biologists determined that the herd was stressed due to poor nutrition and recommended that some be shot, which means lots of good food for local shelters. Next up, how's this for the start of a story? Hm? The deputy could smell fish as he approached the van. Quick rule of thumb. Kids don't approach strange vans no matter what they smell like. Officers discovered one hundred undersized rung lobster tails, seventeen undersized stone crab claws, four undersized whole lobsters, and one undersized mutton snapper in the vehicle. The men driving the van said they operated a small seafood restaurant. Get it all the uh all the fish? Where they were undersized? Small restaurant? What do you expect, folks? Wildlife crime isn't a laughing matter anyway. The lobster tails alone are potential felonies for the two map. Moving on to the public Lands and Waters desk, you may recall the story of Stony Lake that sits just off Stony Lake Road in beautiful British Columbia. The Nicola Valley Fish and Game Club had testified in Supreme Court as to the fact that the water is accessible by public road maintained by public funds, so the water is public and it was this opinion that was upheld by the court. Well, that ruling was just overturned and Stony Lake is now back in private hands. Basically what happened is a new court found that the water is just a bit too far from the road, meaning that the water is not within the public right away, meaning that the water is private. The owner of the ranch, one stand Cronky, the American businessman famous for owning a bunch of professional sports teams, said the public can still stand on the road and smell the lake, even look at it, and he won't charge them to do so. Also, Santa isn't real, just kidding. Stand Cronky is an American businessman. In other British Columbia news, a bunch of folks have written in asking my opinion or to weigh in on trophy basically the word trophy and how it is weaponized against hunters. Its specifically in British Columbia, but you know it happens down here in the lower forty eight and no elsewhere. I'm sure. Now there's kind of a big to do going on here and BC Wild Cheap is uh kind of leading the charge. From what I can see. They got a petition that you can sign online, which you know, not a bad thing to do that says, you know, we support hunting, but the issue of trophy is a good one to talk about, so we're gonna start talking about it here on the Weekend Review. The fear of losing more hunting privileges in BC that we're talking about it comes from a very real precedent set by the current administrations and their views on predator hunting and trapping and moratorium on grizzly bear hunting went into effect in December of two thousand seventeen. And to be clear here, we're like in opinion land, so keep that in mind. If we don't like the word trophy being used against us, and by us I mean hunters, then we as hunters should do a heck of a lot better job not using it, not letting others define hunting as a whole with the word trophy, or we had better readfine the word trophy and do it fast. Take the word back, so to speak. Trophy officially is defined by measurements that, according to a book or organization, say that a skull or horn or antler is of exceptional size rare in comparison to others. But where I see trophy being used is very rarely in association with a club or a book, or even a fricking tape measure. It's often used within a family or even frame of mind. A person's first animal is often their trophy. A child's first dear, no matter it's sex or headgear, or sometimes even their first outing alone is a trophy type of experience. This is very common in almost every single household of hunters I have ever encountered. So why do we allow trophy to be defined by an antiquated notion reflected currently by a very tiny fraction of the modern hunting and fishing community. Let's chat about it right in to a s K C. A L at the meat Eater dot com, and we'll see where we end up. For the record, I love grizzly bears, love being around them, love watching them. One of these days, I'll have a grizzly bear tag in my pocket and I want to eat one. Moving on to the Invasive reptile Desk, I read these headlines in a row, and I want to do the same for you. Python found lurking in barbecue with belly full of chicken eggs following Iguana's weather may not wipe out invasive lizards, but can make python's easy pickings. Large Boa constructor found hopelessly stuck in cars dashboard in North Carolina, just in case you thought it was a slow week in the reptile world. Moving on to the ornithology desk, a rare half male, half female cardinal was photographed by a retired ornithologist in Pennsylvania. The bird has a functioning single testy and a functioning single ovary. This is referred to as bilateral gyn anddromorphism, which has been documented in birds, insects, and crustaceans. In the case of birds, an egg and its associated polar body are fertilized by a separate sperm. The resulting individual is a male female chimera. Now, if you go looking up chimera, it is important to look up genetic chimera. Otherwise you're going to find a Greek female fire breathing monster with a lion's head, which has nothing to do with what we're talking about right now. A genetic chimera is a single organism composed of more than one gene o type. You see the difference between the two fire breathing lion headed female. You get it. So we're learning a lot today, and it's even fun to say chimera. And when I say we are learning, I mean it. I once made fun of a kid during a duck shoot. We were all kids, to be clear, who said he shot a male female hybrid, which is, as I know right now possible. And to me, to be fair, it looks like a model duck or a mallard duck that has not reached full plumage. So you know, shame on me. If you want to get a look at something starkly contrasting that will really make you scratch your head, look up half blue lobster, a guynandromorph example of that species. It looks as if someone cut the lobster in half. Painted one side electric blue, then perfectly sealed it back together. It's amazing. Moving on, the doctor is in. Robbie Doctor sets a new Montana state brown trout record by shattering the previous records set in ninety six by a whopping three and a half pounds and breaking only one little girl's heart in the process. I'm just kidding. As reported by Sam Longer and at the meat Eator dot com, Robbie Doctor fishes with his daughter every Wednesday night. It was with her that he landed the thirty seven inch thirty two pounds six ounce monster brown on four pound test. Way to Go team. Moving on to the dog Lover's desk, and I am speaking to all of you who right in asking me to put my preference for dogs aside when I constantly relay the facts about outdoor cats and their effects on wildlife. Kitchener's Biotactic Fisheries Research and Monitoring has released a study linking dog poop to pour fish health and urban environments dog waste runoff due the high concentrations of nitrogen's phosphorus contained within having This study proven to impact fish survival, weight and behavior. Canada's dog waste, which is where this study took place is estimated to over one million tons per year. This is directly from the Kitchener study. We exposed creek chub, which is a widespread, tolerant stream mennow to various realistic concentrations of dog waste as simulated urban park runoff, testing both fresh and dried dog feces in both stagnant and aerated water to investigate the impact on fish survival and behavior, which you know, sounds like a stinky job synopsis. Where dog poop was present, chubb mortality increased, especially in slow moving non aerated water. So not pick up your pooch. Poo is bad, bad, so pick it up now. If we're being honest, this is a human problem. Bad people, not bad dogs. As a quick recap, we hit nineteen species give or take on the podcast today, where I ask you can you get that kind of bang for your buck? You're welcome. That's all I've got for you this week. Thank you so much for listening. Don't forget to tune in to the Meat Eater YouTube channel every Tuesday for a new episode of this podcast. Cal's we can review in video form in the field, and most importantly, let me know what's happening in your neck of the woods by writing in to a s k CL that's asked cal at the meat eater dot com. Thanks again and I'll talk to you next week. Many group were Tom up the lad has cover