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A Fly Fisherman’s Plea

A Fly Fisherman’s Plea. Maintaining the Yellowstone River Basin. What Is It?. A Fly Fisherman’s Plea is an attempt to increase awareness in maintaining high water quality in the Yellowstone River through a website and blog

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A Fly Fisherman’s Plea

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  1. A Fly Fisherman’s Plea Maintaining the Yellowstone River Basin

  2. What Is It? • A Fly Fisherman’s Plea is an attempt to increase awareness in maintaining high water quality in the Yellowstone River through a website and blog • It is designed to address the problems with water quality, mainly those affecting the aquatic life and their ecosystems, and come up with new potential solutions

  3. National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) • Federal association designed to: • Describe the current water-quality conditions • Describe how it is changing • Improve our understanding of what affects It • They reveal any issues with trace elements, toxic compounds, salinity, sedimentation, or any other related issues • Using their detailed report on the Yellowstone River Basin, the website combines factual evidence with individual’s experiences, opinions, and ideas to attack water quality issues from both sides

  4. What Is Threatening the Fish? • A lot of the Yellowstone River water samples had above average levels of certain pesticides, the most common being atrazine which was found in over 75% of the samples • Suspended-sediment concentrations were also a little above average, which negatively impacts most fish habitats • Whirling disease, a recent epidemic killing tons of fish in the trout and salmon families, occurs through cartilage damage and causes fish to swim uncontrollably in a whirling motion, making it difficulty to find food and avoid predators

  5. Pesticide Danger • A pesticide’s capacity to harm fish is a function of • Toxicity • Dose rate • Exposure time • Persistence • Fish are exposed to pesticides through • Direct absorption • Breathing • Drinking

  6. Pesticide Danger (cont.) • Pesticides reduce the availability of plants and insects that serve as a habitat and food for fish • A sudden lack of food forces fish to swim further away in search of it, putting them at greater risk of predation • Certain herbicides have negative effects on the reproductive success of fish

  7. Moving Forward • While there is no immediate emergency in the Yellowstone, the more that we are all aware of the potential risks and issues with water quality the better • This website would be a big step in the right direction to help bring together the people affected by the Yellowstone and allow them to share their ideas and opinions with each other • While eliminating pesticides is probably never going to happen, learning to monitor and control the use of them is achievable, and this website is designed to facilitate this • You can view the website here: http://fishtheyellowstone.weebly.com/

  8. Sources 1 - USGS National Water Quality Assessment Program Yellowstone River Basin http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/FS-149-97/fs-149-97.pdf 2 - Kirk Miller, Melanie Clark, and Peter Wright Water Quality Assessment of the Yellowstone River Basin, Montana and Wyoming – Water Quality of the Fixed Sites, 1999-2001. http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2004/5113/ 3 - DianiWiegmann, Patricia Hipkins, Louis Helfrich, and Elizabeth Stinson Pesticides and Aquatic Animals: A Guide to Reducing Impacts on Aquatic Systems http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/420/420-013/420-013.html

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