JJJn'IWi'li jMlIipii ill ^ANGLER/ Ran a Looks A Bulltrog SEPTEMBER 1936 7 OFFICIAL STATE September, 1936 PUBLICATION ^ANGLER Vol.5 No. 9 C'^IP-^ '" . : - ==«rs> PUBLISHED MONTHLY COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA by the BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS PENNSYLVANIA BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS HI Five cents a copy — 50 cents a year OLIVER M. DEIBLER Commissioner of Fisheries C. R. BULLER 1 1 f Chief Fish Culturist, Bellefonte ALEX P. SWEIGART, Editor 111 South Office Bldg., Harrisburg, Pa. MEMBERS OF BOARD OLIVER M. DEIBLER, Chairman Greensburg iii MILTON L. PEEK Devon NOTE CHARLES A. FRENCH Subscriptions to the PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER Elwood City should be addressed to the Editor. Submit fee either HARRY E. WEBER by check or money order payable to the Common­ Philipsburg wealth of Pennsylvania. Stamps not acceptable. SAMUEL J. TRUSCOTT Individuals sending cash do so at their own risk. Dalton DAN R. SCHNABEL 111 Johnstown EDGAR W. NICHOLSON PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER welcomes contribu­ Philadelphia tions and photos of catches from its readers. Pro­ KENNETH A. REID per credit will be given to contributors. Connellsville All contributors returned if accompanied by first H. R. STACKHOUSE class postage. Secretary to Board =*KT> IMPORTANT—The Editor should be notified immediately of change in subscriber's address Please give both old and new addresses Permission to reprint will be granted provided proper credit notice is given Vol. 5 No. 9 SEPTEMBER, 1936 *ANGLER7 WHAT IS BEING DONE ABOUT STREAM POLLUTION By GROVER C. LADNER Deputy Attorney General and President, Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen PORTSMEN need not be told that stream pollution is a long uphill fight. On the one side is arrayed special S privilege, selfish interests and money power; on the other side the decent right-thinking citizenry of the State and Nation who are fighting this battle of the ages not merely for themselves, but for those who come hereafter. Between the two is the great mass of people, who, fortunately for the polluters, have not yet been fully aroused but are not to be considered in any wise as supporting the polluters. Ask the average citizen whom you meet was two pieces of legislation. One was the $10.00 per fish for every fish killed by pollu­ what his opinion is about stream pollution. Pure Streams Bill No. 273. The other was tion. In ninety-nine cases out of one hundred he the Ruth Bill No. 323 increasing the penal­ There is no logic in punishing an indi­ Will express his disgust and say it should ty for destruction of fish by pollution. vidual fisherman on the basis of a fine per be stopped, but unfortunately he does not The Pure Streams Bill, Senate Bill No. fish for fish illegally killed and allowing the feel called upon to take an active interest. 273, briefly explained, re-enacted the Purity big polluter who kills them by the thousands In the vanguard of those who wish to of Waters Act of 1905 relating to sewage to escape with the ridiculous fine of $100.00. suppress this evil are to be found the and extended the provisions to industrial The Ruth Bill No. 323 was extremely fair sportsmen, not because they have any self­ polluters. It included a provision designed and contained a clause which safeguarded ish interest to serve, but because their love to multiply the enforcement agencies by against oppression in that it provided that, of the outdoors brings them most frequently enabling the local communities to assist in if the fish killing was due to the breaking in contact with the horrors of the situation. the work of cleaning up the streams. By down of a plant or a circumstance beyond Friends of clean streams need not be dis­ thus enabling officials of local communities the control of the industry, the Board of mayed at the situation, for every sign shows to take a part in this program of stream Fish Commissioners could accept a settle­ that the great mass of indifferent citizens clean-up, the whole burden was not thrown ment from the industry based upon the cost is slowly but surely being aroused. Impa­ upon a single body. of restocking the stream. tience at further toleration of this evil is It may be pointed out that previous ad­ This bill was passed by the Democratic becoming daily more manifest, and the ministrations were committed steadfastly to House of Representatives, but, when it came sportsmen can do much to help in its de­ the principle of concentrating and central­ to the Republican Senate, it was pickled m velopment. izing pollution enforcement in a single body the Game and Fish Committee of that body. The greatest forward movement toward —the Sanitary Water Board. This made it easy to play politics with the situation and If the sportsmen of the State want real the suppression of stream pollution resulted progress made, they must supply us with from the election of Governor Earle. He kept that board subjected to continuous and frightful political pressure. Our plan, the weapons by appropriate legislation. This made the abatement of stream pollution they can do by voting for candidates to the one of his issues. He has not changed his which advocates decentralization of power, would make that situation impossible. Pre­ Legislature who will vote for their inter­ mind. Great progress has been made, but ests and not against them. not the progress that has been expected, vious administrations were content to use and the reason therefor is the purpose of stream pollution as a political football. This The adjournment of the General Session this article. administration is not. of 1935 left us without adequate weapons to carry on the kind of a campaign that we In reviewing accomplishments, two things We recognize it to be just as illogical to had hoped. Nevertheless, we have done the must be borne in mind—the size of the concentrate the enforcement of stream pol­ best that we could under the circumstances. problem and the limited facilities available lution law in a single body as it would We have not been idle. to cope with it. be to attempt to enforce all the criminal laws through the medium of the State Po­ The full power of the Attorney General's The size of the problem becomes manifest lice instead of allowing the local commun­ Office has been exerted to prevent, first, the upon realization that 85,000 of the 100,000 ities to do their own policing. extension of the pollution evil, and second, miles of waterway are polluted and need to compel the abatement thereof. In most attention. Senator Thompson, the sponsor of this cases, we have gone after the offending in­ When the Earle Administration took of­ bill, succeeded in having the bill reported dustry both from the viewpoint of prevent­ fice, we had no illusions concerning the favorably by the committee, but, at the ing a recurrence in the future and a prose­ instance of Senator Sordoni of Luzerne, immensity of the task and knew the im­ cution for the past offense. backed by the other coal county senators, practicability of safeguarding the clean the bill was recommitted and killed. And Eighty-nine complaints of pollution have streams and making much progress toward this notwithstanding the fact that Section had the attention of the Sanitary Water reclaiming the ruined ones with the limited 310 exempted from its provision the coal Board and have been satisfactorily disposed facilities available. mines. of. For this reason, our first effort was to The other bill, the Ruth Bill No. 323, Eight prosecutions have been advised un­ draw up a program of legislation which amended the pollution section of the Fish der Section 200 of the Fish Code, and the "Would enable us to effectively tackle the Law of 1925. It was modeled along the lines following are the results: Problem. The main part of this program of the New York law, fixing a penalty of (Please turn to Page 12) 2 PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER WHAT COLOR FISH? By FRED EVERETT Sketches by the Author HEN one happens to be an artist who I say might, because this may happen but Another factor which causes drastic Wpaints fish, he is in for a lot of criti­ at times, may not. changes is the temperature of the water. cism, no matter how careful he may be to This question of color is a mighty elusive Put a fish into warmer water and its color be authentic in every detail. What such an thing and no one can say for sure just will fade immediately—you can see it go. artist needs most is a life-preserver alibi what causes these changes. Yet we who Put it into colder water and the color will and that is why I'm writing this article for have made a study of the changes know darken and grow richer. This will happen you Pennsylvania anglers. I hope that the that many things enter into the causes and even to a dead fish as you have no doubt sportsmen of at least one state will under­ some of the changes can be effected at will. noticed after putting your catch in the ice stand what I am doing when I make a Let us take light, which has a decided box. painting of a fish and it doesn't look at all influence on color. Have you ever noticed While using my portable aquarium to the same color as the fish in their own that the trout you catch out of the same waters. paint fish, it is always necessary to change stream, yes, even the same pool, vary a the water often, even when the fish is small.