Friday Special Post! Warning: Graphic Content

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Graphic in the way that flowcharts are graphics, of course! Instead of a photo-filled post, today's post is some fishing-related graphics I've done recently. I've already shared my Annual Fishing Goals graphic; let's dive into a few others.

Note: If you follow Laegreid Outdoors on Facebook and Twitter you might have already seen these, but I think they're cool, so you get to see them again. Yay!

The Salmon ID Flowcharts

Salmon are amazing fish. They're strong, they're delicious, and in saltwater, they all kind of look the same. This is the issue my brother-in-law had when he moved from Oklahoma to Washington. With the regulations as they are in Washington, it is very important to be able to distinguish between the different species while they are in their ocean phase. The WDFW provides a nice pamphlet (from which I nicked the photos. Thanks, public domain!), but I felt it might be good to have a helpful guide to aid in identification. 

There are two versions, the pretty one and the useful one:
The pretty

The useful

The Conservation Graphics

Poaching is bad, and there are some intentionally bad people who knowingly take species out of season or take too many. These people should be beaten with a rubber hose. There are, however, a lot of people who poach without even realizing it, and the cure for that is EDUCATION. Enter the I'm Not a Salmon graphic! A work in progress (needs better images), the INaS graphic is designed to help people avoid harvesting fish that are similar to salmon in appearance. Not only will it help prevent damage to protected fish populations, it has the added benefit of keeping people from getting fined or their gear being confiscated. 


The last graphic for today is one that came from a few experiences on local beaches. In Puget Sound, Spiny Dogfish arrive in large numbers around the same time as salmon. Most predators in the Salish Sea are hard-pressed to turn down an offering of tasty herring, so anglers often catch dogfish when targeting salmon. Unfortunately, a number of "anglers" feel that, for some reason, dogfish don't deserve the respect granted the salmonids, so they do terrible things to them. The night before I made this graphic, I witnessed two young men catching sharks, stomping on them, and kicking them back into the water. I discussed this with them. Since then, I have heard other horror stories, many of which are rather graphic. I am a firm believer in the idea that you only kill what you are going to eat, and if you do kill something, make the death as quick and clean as possible for the critter you are dispatching. Since I can't talk to everyone who tortures dogfish, I created a graphic that can be (and has been!) printed and shared. 


If you feel like printing any of these to share or use, feel free to email me and I'll send you the printable file. 

Keep your eyes peeled for more posts soon!


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