Gone Fishing!
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Gone Fishing! Created for free use in the public domain "NFSJDBO1IJMBUFMJD4PDJFUZªtXXXTUBNQTPSH Financial support for the development of these album pages provided by Mystic Stamp Company America’s Leading Stamp Dealer and proud of its support of the American Philatelic Society www.MysticStamp.com, 800-433-7811 Gone Fishing! he history of fishing in North America is as old as the ndeed, my good scholar, we may say of history of humankind. Fishing hooks are estimated to angling, as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries, have been used for at least 30–40,000 years, but due to I T “Doubtless God could have made a better the perishable nature of the first efforts — likely wood, berry, but doubtless God never did”; and so, thorn, bone, or antler — little evidence remains. One site in Czechoslovakia yielded bone hooks that are estimated to if I might be judge, God never did make a be about 20,000 years old, while numerous sites around the more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than world have revealed a variety of fish hooks dating from about angling. — Izaak Walton, 8–10,000 years ago. Over time they have been made of many The Compleat Angler(1653) materials; in addition to those mentioned above, fish hooks have been made of horn, claws, hooked raptor beaks, shell, stone, copper, bronze, and iron. Our ancestors depended on aquatic life to sustain them with food and to provide tools and ornaments to make their lives easier and more pleasurable. The often huge mounds of seashells and other human debris found at Mesolithic sites along rivers and the coastal regions of the world have long been a rich source of archaeological information about how different peoples have utilized their environment. There are two basic types of these shell depositories: kitchen middens where the debris of daily living is discarded, and packed mounds that usually served as a base for greater ceremonial structures or as a raised covering for burial sites. For our purposes, however, it is the kitchen midden, with its deposits of mussels, clams, oysters, cockleshell, a variety of fish bones, turtles, and snails — all of which may be found in fresh and salt water varieties — that is of primary interest to these album pages. If we are what we eat, there is a distinctly aquatic component to the peoples of North America, and shell kitchen middens can be found along the sea coast, estuaries, and river banks of the present-day United States from Florida to Oregon. When European colonists arrived they, too, relied on the bounty of the sea and the local fresh water tributaries. The Maryland Charter of 1632, which was granted to Lord Baltimore by Charles I, king of England, guaranteed the new proprietor the rights to “Fishings of every kind of Fish as well as Whales, Sturgeons and other royal Fish in the Sea, Bays, Straits, or Rivers, within the premises ... [and] ... the Liberty © 2011 — The Scott numbers are the copyrighted property of Amos Press Inc., dba Scott Publishing Co. and are used here under a licensing agreement with Scott. The marks “Scott” and “Scott’s” are Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and are trademarks of Amos Press, Inc. dba Scott Publishing Co. No use may be made of these marks or of material in this publication, which is reprinted from a copyrighted publication of Amos Press, Inc., without the express written permission of Amos Press, Inc., dba Scott Publishing Co., Sidney, Ohio 45365. Gone Fishing! of Fishing for Sea-Fish as well in the Sea, Bays, Straits and navigable rivers ... of the Province aforesaid.”1 These were important matters, in an era when royal decree governed what resources the colonists were allowed to exploit. By the 1700s, however, early commercial fishing ventures were in place from Newfoundland south along the Atlantic coastline, making fishing the first major colonial industry. Colonists dined on (and marketed) such fare as halibut, ocean perch, haddock, flounder, cod, shad, herring, striped bass, gar, catfish, sturgeon, sheepshead, drum, lobsters, oysters, and blue crabs. Exports of salt cod and dried herring, in particular, filled the holds of ships making their way back to Europe and points east. The rich marine waters off the coast of the eastern United States and lower Canada were the source of livelihoods for generation after generation, until over-fishing began to deplete stocks in the late twentieth century. But individual fishermen continued to feast on the rich food source supplied by America’s waters. Anglers headed to the banks of streams, rivers and lakes for the pleasure of the activity as well as for the opportunity to add to the family’s food supply. However, it wasn’t really until the years following World War II that strictly recreational fishing became a force of its own. Today, armchair fans can sit back and follow the exploits of professional sports fisherman on television, online, and in magazines. Still, if fishing doesn’t have the importance it had when the rewards could be laid on the family dining table, it remains a popular personal pastime and a vital commercial activity in the United States, By the way, the area surrounding State College, Pennsylvania was listed by Forbes Magazine as one of the Top 10 Fly Fishing destinations in the country. So the next time you visit the American Philatelic Center, bring along your gear — stop by the editorial office and we’ll give you a few local tips. Gone Fishing! Fresh Water Fish — Biggest & Oldest — Wonders of America: White Sturgeon at4DPUU The white sturgeon is North America’s largest and most primitive freshwater fish. It has been around for an estimated 170 million years. As the Discovery Channel’s “Animal Planet” noted, this would have qualified it for a guest spot in the movie Jurassic Park. The white sturgeon can live for more than 100 years, reaching a length of 20 feet or better and a weight approaching one ton. It doesn’t have typical fish scales but is covered by a bony armor. It also has a primitive notochord instead of a backbone. This feature is found in only one other modern-day creature, the lamprey, which, curiously enough, is the sturgeon’s favorite prey. A bottom feeder with poor eye sight and no teeth, the sturgeon has an extendable mouth to help it vacuum up its prey. Although young fish eat mostly insect larvae, worms, and small invertebrates such as snails and crayfish, the adults have a fish-based diet composed of smaller fish such as smelt, shad, and, as mentioned, the lamprey eel. However, they occasionally tackle larger prey. One sturgeon was found to have five fresh, whole sockeye salmon in its stomach. They are found from Ensenada, Mexico to Cook Inlet, Alaska. Because they are slow to mature (females are not ready to spawn until they are about 25 years old), they are particularly vulnerable to changes in their habitat (such as silted waterways, pesticide/fertilizer runoff, and the invasion of other species) and over-fishing. Once abundant in our large rivers, today their numbers are in a steady decline. — Catfish — — Bass — — Carp — 'JTI$BUĕTItat4DPUU Fish: Largemouth Bass Bright Eyes: Goldfish at4DPUU at4DPUU Named for their prominent barbels, Native to the eastern United States, The popular yellow-orange color of elongated sense of touch organs near the largemouth bass is a voracious today’s goldfish is actually a naturally their mouths that resemble elongated predator that will eat insects, small occurring genetic mutation that has cat whiskers, there are more than to medium-sized fish, crayfish, frogs, been bred for selectively for hundreds 2,200 species of catfish worldwide. and even snakes. Although they can of years. These small members of the In fact, catfish inhabit the waters of grow as long as two feet and weigh up carp family were first domesticated every continent except Antarctica. to 20 pounds, a typical largemouth by the Chinese more than a thousand Some species of this fish can be is about a foot long and weighs years ago. Selective goldfish breeding huge. The blue catfish that lives in between 3–5 pounds. The record is has developed various ornamental the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio 29.5 inches and 25 pounds. They are shapes and colors; however, if released river basins system is usually given named for their large mouths, which to the wild, within a few generations the honors as the largest American extend past their eyes. Considered their coloration will revert to its catfish; the current record holder the most popular gamefish in the original shade of greenish brown. A weighed 124 lbs. but blue catfish in United States, they strike hard and popular aquarium fish, they can even excess of 300 lbs. have been recorded. leap high, but they are often fished be taught to perform simple tricks. Flathead catfish are not only large as catch-and-release. They are the These small carp do well in a variety (the record holder weighed 123 lbs.), state fish of Alabama, Florida, of environments, including stock are excellent eating and game fish. Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee tanks on large cattle or sheep ranches, Channel cats are smaller, up to 40 (which recognizes both large- and where they are used to keep down pounds. The most numerous are smallmouth bass); other subspecies the mosquitoes and algae that would the various bullhead catfish, at 3–7 of bass (fresh and salt water) are otherwise cause a problem during the lbs. All of these species are bottom honored in Kentucky, Maryland, summer months. feeders, eating aquatic insects, worms, New Hampshire, New York, North snails, crayfish, and fish — living or Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, dead.