It angered me to no end. The following is my submitted response.
"To whom it may concern,
I am writing in response to the article entitled “Pest Control” from the October 18-24, 2010 edition of The Herald News Review. During the course of my education, my focus has always been fish and fisheries. This traditionally has involved educating the general public on so-called “trash fish”; this would include our native species of chestnut and brook lampreys. Although invasive species present a problem across the entire country, I am disgusted by the way this article was written.
Not only was there no mention of the benefits of our two native species (lampreys are indeed a species of fish), but U.S. Fish and Wildlife representative Michael Twohey seems to be inciting a witch hunt on lampreys everywhere with his extremely unnecessary comment about eels being associated with lampreys. Just because a species of fish is not aesthetically “pretty” to us, does not disqualify it from having a beneficial role in its particular niche. The wanton waste of fish already extends to bowfin, gar, and suckers which are all native species and serve a well established purpose in their environments.
The sea lamprey problem in Lake Michigan is of concern; however the use of lampricides in Trail Creek does not seem like the greatest answer to the problem. Trail Creek already has a severe shortage of bait fish and food sources. Now, U.S. Fish and Wildlife may have just successfully killed another source of food for this fishery, lampreys that are naturally supposed to be here (assuming there were any in there to begin with). We already have to stock streams and the lake with trout species because we have decimated indigenous populations.
This seems to me to be yet another dropped ball by our local, state, and federal wildlife and fisheries authorities. Indiana has quite a few beautiful and unique fish and wildlife areas and reserves. The problem is it also among those states that tolerate the most pollution. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has so far managed to ruin our environment by its political pocket lining (BP in Whiting, for example), looking the other way as corporations poison our state’s soil, water, and air.
Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes are considered a national treasure, yet the levels of pollution in them are entirely out of control due, in no small part, to lack of education of outdoorsmen and the general public. So when I read comments like Mr. Twohey’s, I feel that I need to sarcastically thank him for setting fisheries education back several years. If this person speaks for a federal authority, I feel assured that this federal authority needs to hire more people who are willing to educate people correctly and not incite fear amongst outdoorsmen of creatures that are vital to an ecological balance. Good job guys, another dismal failure."
IDEM, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management is a sick and terrible joke. It may as well stand for It Doesn't Even Matter.
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