How to Outfit a Fish Car (Humor article)

Thanks to Mike Carey, editor at Northwest Fishing Reports, for posting my humor article "How to Outfit a Fish Car."

The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) Post of Industrial Oz: Ecopoems

Thanks to ASLE for their post on my new book Industrial Oz: Ecopoems.

Fishing With Henry Hughes

I recently enjoyed fishing with the strong writer and angler Henry Hughes, author of forthcoming Bunch of Animals and angling memoir Back Seat with Fish.  A winner of the Oregon Book Award for Men Holding Eggs, Hughes wrote a post on fishing books at 3 Good Books that led me to read John Engels' excellent fishing poetry book Big Water.  Hughes and I caught steelhead, and had interesting conversation.  Scott:  "This clay bank is eroding like in Sometimes a Great Notion but you are a certified diver so you should be okay."  Henry: "I don't think that would help."  Inside I laughed so hard I almost fell in the water.  In another scene, on a more serious note, I pointed out dangerous logs in tidewater that can roll and trap a man like when Hank tried to save Joe Ben. 

Sea Lice on Fresh Steelhead

I caught another two chromers this morning with sea lice.  I found this interesting article "Sea Lice - Good Bad and Ugly" from Deneki Outdoors which operates fly fishing lodges in Alaska, British Columbia, and the Bahamas.

Steelblue Hens

Here are two steelblue hens I caught this morning fresh from the salt.  Mike Carey at Northwest Fishing Reports recently published my "Dictionary of Pacific Northwest Fishing."   My previous article was "Pay Attention to Details." At the end of February, my next one will be about my infamous "Fish Car."

I caught these hens on old school egg clusters.  I will probably write an article on "Fishing Old School" as a tribute to old timers I knew and know.

Suz failed all of her classes at Wife School

Suz caught this fisherman in Canada.

Does it look like they are underwater?

That's what I'm talking about.

as expected.

At least winter steelhead are back, which means getting my lure in the strike zone takes priority over sleep, food, laundry, paying bills, shaving, star gazing, etc., etc., etc.

This is my second favorite time of the year.  Spring chinook season, my favorite, will follow.

Three Reflections on COP21 (Paris Climate Summit)

1) Regarding calories, one push up, no matter how carefully monitored, does not equal five cheesecakes.

2) Voices of children around the world make more sense than our Harvard and Yale trained "leaders."

3) In his Day of Affirmation Address against injustice of apartheid in 1966, Robert F. Kennedy said, "Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality of those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change. [ . . . . ]  I believe that in this generation those with the courage to enter the conflict will find themselves with companions in every corner of the world."

You Too Can Depress Family, Friends, and Coworkers

by sharing my new book of eco-reality from Amazon, the publisher, or local bookseller. Thanks to Joseph O'Brien at the San Diego Reader for publishing three poems from Industrial Oz: Ecopoems. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! is doing an excellent job covering the meeting of over 190 nations at the Paris climate summit. The latest draft reminds me of the joke about a camel as a horse designed by a committee. It's obvious we need a binding agreement, and developed countries need to help poorer nations. These two things need to happen now.

Meanwhile, in the United States the fate of Earth's community of species decided in Paris is not very newsworthy.  I would hope the facts that over 12 million trees have died in the California drought, and that California is experiencing its worst drought in 1,200 years, would be enough to distract people from iPhones.  Maybe in dreams and nightmares they are, but these are forgotten by morning.

Still, seeds are being planted.  I recall Jakob Bohme wrote, "For according to the outward man, we are in this world, and according to the inward man, we are in the inward world.... Since then we are generated out of both worlds, we speak in two languages, and we must be understood also by two languages."  My book leads with this quote from Norman O. Brown's Love's Body, Chapter 1, "Liberty,": "For the reality of politics, we must go to the poets, not to the politicians." 

Writing this blog post along the sea, I noticed roots taking back the street.  

"UN on wrong track with plans to limit global warming to 2C, says top scientist [James Hansen]" -- The Guardian

"Might makes right" has worked for politicians for thousands of years, but not this time. Hansen is right in noting " [ . . .] we are screwing the next generation."  I'll be reading at the March & Rally for Climate Justice on Dec. 12 at Balboa Park in San Diego with poets Sandra Alcosser, Julia Julima, and others.  If you would like to join over 700,000 people who marched the weekend of Nov. 28 and 29, click here for the nearest action to you.  Update Dec. 7, 2015:  The Guardian reported today "US, China, Canada and EU among big carbon emitters at UN summit supporting 1.5C target to protect most vulnerable countries such as small island states."  However, talk is easy.  As Bruce Lee said, “Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.”

At Playa's Artist Retreat in Southeast Oregon

I'm enjoying two wonderful weeks at Playa, working on my next book Lost Salmon, hiking the area, looking at rivers and lakes, and meeting resident artists and writers.  I called Suz to report my good fortune, and added, "Listen closely because this is the most important thing you will hear all year.  I need you (pause) to send my fishing license."

"Les Schwab says I need you to pay $2000 for my new tires and brakes," she replied.

"I don't know about Les, " I said.  "You grew up on a farm.  Can't you make your own tires, or download them, or something?"

"No," she said.

"Well, anyway," I said, "back to the more important matter.  Make sure you send my Oregon license, and not my Washington one, because they are both in the same pocket of my green jacket."  We'll see how that goes.  Sometimes she gets distracted from my fishing needs by less significant things like work, sleep, or food.

Cowspiracy

Tonight I watched Cowspiracy which showed industrial-scale animal agriculture may be a much bigger problem regarding climate change, species extinction, loss of rain forest, world hunger, and human diseases than I thought. This may be the most important film I've seen in the past four years. I'm glad 20 years ago, after I heard John Robbins speak, I became vegetarian or, with some exceptions, restricted myself to eating only creatures that were free before death such as wild-caught salmon and steelhead.  John Robbins was heir to the world's largest ice cream chain, Baskin-Robbins, and could have had an easy life, but instead chose a life of conscience.  If the Paris climate summit doesn't discuss industrial-scale animal agriculture, it is making a huge mistake.

Updated Nov. 1 -- Okay, I saw a challenge to the Cowspiracy film. I read the entire article at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/earth-to-philly/Livestock-and-climate-Whose-numbers-are-more-credible.html I also read the comments after https://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comments/3lsiyo/reluctant_to_show_people_cowspiracy/ in which someone claiming to have done legal work (with a link to back that up) notes the "UN says animal ag is responsible for 14.5% of emissions" [instead of the alleged 51% in Cowspiracy]. Since the EPA notes transport is 13% [of climate change emissions] , and energy supply 26%, the 14.5% solid number for animal ag is still significant (EPA lists all Ag at 14%) < http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/global.html >.

Industrial Oz

My new book is available from Fomite Press in Vermont. My 95-year-old landlord, who has become like a grandfather, paid the highest compliment: "Scott, if you read these poems, you're going to jail."

I did my best to tell the truth about "our blue jewel planet worn until now by an oil industry harlot." I have guilt saying that as I feel bad about offending harlots.

In 2014 I alienated myself from a large swath of the poetry world when I wrote at the Monarch Review in Seattle, "The National Poetry Series accepting support from Exxon is like God asking Satan if he can spare some change for the cause."  The United Nations Environment Programme notes "Scientists estimate that between 150 and 200 species of life become extinct every 24 hours [, . . . .] the greatest rate of extinction since the vanishing of the dinosaurs” 65 million years ago, and this time humans are causing it.

30% of my royalty is going to 350.org so in addition to being more informed, you will be doing something real about the problem.

My hope is a future of technicolor coral reefs, polar bears, narwhals, salmon, and leaping wild orcas. Trading all these for more cyber zeros and ones in banking computer databases seems unwise.

Last week in class an extremely stressed student, working a grammar problem, asked "What if I get it wrong?"

"You go to hell," I replied, and everyone laughed.

However, getting the climate change issue wrong means we are all going to hell in many ways including, but not limited to, food security, water security, financial security, social stability, etc. Even if, by some miracle, temperature increase were limited to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), Brian Kahn of The Guardian notes, "sea levels may still rise at least 6 meters (20 ft) above their current heights, radically reshaping the world’s coastline and affecting millions in the process." The response of 147 nations attending the 2015 Paris climate summit? 2.7 degrees Celsius

To use the metaphor of an airplane, pilots are drunk, asleep, or missing.

I am grateful for blurbs from Bill McKibben: " — we need the whole brain and the whole heart. Industrial Oz is a rousing, needling, haunting case in point."

Thomas Rain Crowe: "Industrial Oz may just be the most cogent and sustained collection of quality eco-activist poetry ever written in this culture, this country."

Marybeth Holleman: "'Are you really awake?' asks a bumper sticker in an early poem. After reading these poems, you will be."

Fishing Rod Insurance

Suz on a well-deserved break from catching our winter supply of cohos

Fishing rod insurance is only $67 a year which is entirely reasonable since I spend more time with it than any humans.  Suz said no because in ten years it will add up to $670, or almost half the price of the rod.  I told her she is not figuring in my emotional attachment.  She says I am not figuring in the left half of my brain.  I told her I doubt I even have a left half. Anyway, all this fighting is preparing me for fighting winter steelhead in December.

Think Like a Fish

Thanks to Mike Carey, editor at Northwest Fishing Reports, for publishing my humor articles "Think Like a Fish"  and "Combat Fishing."

There will be one article a month until March, and maybe after that if winter steelhead season's icy conditions don't numb too many brain cells.

The Only Thing Better Than One Fish, One Mermaid, is a Mermaid With a Fish

One Fish, One Mermaid

Coho Have Arrived

I'm super angry at Suzette.  In our prenuptial agreement it clearly says "Shall not use Scott's fishing rod or share his secret bait cures . . . ." I went to driftwood to write a poem and caught her coho-handed as you can see.

Mermaid Photo and San Juan Kayak Trip

Being a wild mermaid, Suz was able to call wild orcas close in 

for spectacular leaps.  She took this photo with her phone.

Best mermaid I ever caught

I'm no scientist, but I think the kayak goes faster if the person in front helps row.

Suz and I were married Aug. 1.  We went sea kayaking out of Friday Harbor for the honeymoon.

Something is still wrong with my camera lens, as Suz's salmon on top looks bigger than mine.  I went to the camera shop and the guy said, "Ain't nothing wrong with the lens.  It's yo head." Obviously, he knows nothing about fishing, and less than nothing about photography.

Mike Carey, editor at Northwest Fishing Reports, asked me for an article a month so I can test my humor stories.  He just published my first one "Locals Only," and I also wrote ones for future issues and newsletters on "The Art of Mentoring," "Thinking Outside the Tackle Box," "Combat Fishing," and "Identifying Angler Types for Fun and Profit."

Think Pink

Giant schools of pink salmon came through the Strait last week, and Suz and I  intercepted 

two. Mine is on the top but something is wrong with my camera lens that makes 

hers look bigger.

The problem fishing with Suz is it's hard to keep my eyes on the river. 

This is her huge Thompson River, B. C., rainbow caught while I was distracted.

Pacific Northwest Salmon Dance

The Moment We All Wait For

Suz Scouting for Ocean Salmon

ADABoats.com Makes Lakes Wheelchair Accessible for Disabled Veterans and Others

Click above to see an "ADA Boats Review" by Mike Carey of Northwest Fishing Reports trolling Lake Stevens north of Seattle for kokanee.

Fellow Washington fisherman Mike Mayes sells and rents wheelchair-accessible boats expanding opportunities for disabled veterans and others anywhere in the world.  He said his boat "Independence continues to serve the Fishing Access Network, and produces smiles on everyone she carries." Mayes, founder of ADABoats.com, said design of Independence was guided by disabled friends. That is exactly what I like about him.  In three years of conversations about the best places, times, and gear to catch salmon and steelhead, he has always been a great listener.  Watch the above video. He can be a reached at info@adaboats.com

Then and Now

Then

Now

Suz and I had a big fight.  We were raised fishing the same rivers like the Molalla and Clackamas, and ocean reefs, so I guess it was only natural sooner or later she demanded to know my secret fishing spots. "Look," I said, "I bought you a diamond ring.  Isn't that enough?  I'm not giving you my secret fishing holes that took a lifetime to find.  That kind of intimacy and trust takes years.  If it's okay with you, I'd like to keep them between me and God."  She said it wasn't okay. 

"Let me get this straight," she said.  "You trust me enough to marry me, but not enough to show me your secret fishing spots?"

"How it is," I said.

She responded by purposely knocking off one of my big spring chinooks with the net (She swears it was an accident. Yeah right.).  Of course, we broke up over it. It was a nice fish that by all rights should have been in the box.

Now we are back together, and using her mermaid magic, she has my secret spots.  Or thinks she does.  I didn't tell her I learned from a Joseph Campbell video how Navajo US Army scout and storyteller Jeff King left out an essential piece of the story until the initiate was ready. 

Now is the time to remove the lower four Snake River dams.

See the 7 min. film Remove the Dams to Save the Salmon? selected by National Geographic editors and showcased at National Geographic Society.

Rivers Cooking Salmon, EU Cooking Greeks

With rivers heating way above normal and falling to never before seen water levels, now is a good time to ocean fish.  River salmon, steelhead, and trout are in serious trouble due to drought, lack of water-sustaining snowpack, and recent heat. 

Today, the mighty Columbia River is 73 degrees and the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, went over 80 degrees.  Both temps are too hot for good salmon survival.  A 2004 chart at Willamette Riverkeeper notes "Instantaneous" death at 90 F and death in "Hours to days" at 70 F to 77 F.

Henry Miller, of the Statesman Journal, reported "Chinook salmon are more prone to disease, injury and stress when water temperatures rise above 60 degrees. At 70 degrees, the fish start to get into real trouble."  In the same article, Tom Friesen, ODFW Manager of Upper Willamette Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Program, noted "we don’t [usually] see dead spring Chinook in the main-stem Willamette until mid-summer” but added "Fortunately, many of this year’s spring Chinook have already entered the tributaries, which should help ensure their survival."  That is, if there is enough water for fish, their red dotted eggs, and offspring.  In a worst case trend, life wouldn't be the same without salmon.  Food, legend, initiation, family bonding, and sacredness of places and experiences in those places would be lost.

Before you pack up and move, consider the Pacific Northwest is ranked as a much better than average place to be during climate change, according to a study from the University of Notre Dame. The study notes, "Vulnerability to climate change is based on six factors: food, water, health, ecosystem service, human habitat and infrastructure. The readiness index is made up of three components: economic readiness, governance readiness and social readiness."

Climate destruction and social response are two main themes in my new book Industrial Oz forthcoming from Vermont's Fomite Press before the Paris Climate Conference (COP21) in December.

Regarding economic readiness, the global banking scandal of 2008 "almost brought down the world’s financial system" according to The Economist, leaving many governments and citizens in much worse shape to deal with climate disasters like droughts, heat waves, Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.  Power drunk bankers and arrogant politicians in the face of climate change are like combining the Exxon Valdez with the Titanic, and hoping for a good ending.

Regarding the possible "Grexit" news today, I know Germans have been good at paying taxes, and overall Greeks not so good, but I agree with Noble Prize in Economics winner Joseph E. Stiglitz, who noted today in USA Today, "Europe must back away from Greek austerity cliff."  Rules for everything are changing fast.  Nature clearly teaches adapting is necessary for survival.  

Sockeye Madness

I read somewhere variety of diet is important so I took a day off from chinook fishing to go sockeye fishing.  I caught this on a small green Spin-N-Glow with a piece of shrimp. It was a delicious fish.

Small Water Salmon

Hooking big fish in small water was described by a friend as "fighting a gorilla in a storage unit." There will be bloody shins and lost fish, but I can't think of a better way to spend a June morning. The problem, of course, is ropey lines allow control but mean fewer hookups.  Lighter lines mean more hookups but then you can't horse salmon ashore. I fished small water salmon in B. C., Washington, and Oregon with mixed success.

Recently, on my way to small water salmon, I passed weary construction workers who stared at my fishing pole like thirsty men in a desert.  "Well, somebody's got to do it." I said, and received a hearty laugh.

Fishing with Suz a few years ago, we spoke with a Bristol Bay commercial fisherman's wife while waiting for the verdict to fish his Washington property.  "How did you get your hair to do that?" asked Suz, and they spoke like old friends.  Light bulb.  The next time a guy crowded me small water salmon fishing I would try that to drive him away.

Before long, it happened.   A fisherman inched closer and closer until it became uncomfortable.  "How did you get your hair to do that?" I fired.

"Do you mean the highlights?" he asked.  Utt-oh.

In other words, there is always a balancing act in small waters between remembering we are spiritual beings and primitive harvesters.  Competition means conflict.  Rumi said, "God is the only real customer," which is true since everything else is temporary.  I received comments about my blog post below as being "sort of heavy" by mentioning all fish in all seas may be dead "by 2048."

If not then, scientists say in a billion years the sun will evaporate all oceans so life on Earth will be impossible.  This means Rumi is right.  What matters is the regenerative power of the universe to make new salmon and salmon fishers.  Jesus said in Matthew 3:9: "I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham."  And He did.  And He will.

Most best fishermen I have known have been deeply spiritual.  This is going to become even more important as drought continues, competition increases, and salmon runs drop.  Yesterday, I read water over 60 degrees will start killing salmon, and this is happening in the Clackamas, Santiam, and Willamette.  In worse news, 75 degree water is predicted in Northwest watersheds this summer which will mean massive salmon die offs.  Unfortunately, cassin's auklets are facing a similar fate in what has been noted by Craig Welch of National Geographic as "Unprecedented."  Also at National Geographic, I read Ken Balcomb's June 11, 2015, essay linking loss of chinook salmon to extinction of orcas.  Balcomb is a Senior Scientist, Center for Whale Research, in Friday Harbor, WA.  He wrote, "As a nation, we are dangerously close to managing the beloved southern resident killer whale population to quasi-extinction (less than 30 breeding animals) as a result of diminishing populations of Chinook salmon upon which they depend."  The comments after Balcomb's article are interesting and show both sides of the Snake River dams breaching issue.  After reading all of the comments, my vote goes to Balcomb.

Spawning Run

How many seeds inside a seed? 
How far does north go? 

I’m on my spawning run north

over I-205 Bridge

and salmon below in the Columbia

are on theirs.

The Statesman Journal reports

over 60 degree water is killing them

in the Clackamas, Santiam, Willamette

before they have a chance

and, unless lightning strikes

minds of politicians in Paris,

I wonder how long before we  
have lost our chance.

If You Love This Planet, See Rob Stewart's Revolution

The authenticity of Rob Stewart's film making, historical perspective, accurate knowledge, and list of victories won by activists make Revolution an essential film.  But what would you expect from a guy who successfully fought a $400 a pound shark fin industry in his previous film Sharkwater which helped ban shark finning in 100 countries, and led to a 70% reduction of sales in China?

A great quality of Revolution was its blend of personal focus with macro focus.  It reminded me of Derrick Jensen's essay "Forget Shorter Showers." In other words, nonviolent civil disobedience is gaining traction, twice resulting in the arrest of James Hansen (2011 and 2013), former director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. The second time he was arrested with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

John Muir noted, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."  Let me explain.  The online device you are using to read this is made possible by burning carbon.  Your car, house, clothes, and food are the same.  You may know this.  What you may not know, as Stewart's film Revolution shows, is all this burning of carbon leads to ocean acidification which means, unless we stop soon,: 1) all fish in the oceans may be gone "by 2048"; 2) technicolor coral reefs may be gone in "50 years time, probably even 20 years" to be replaced with ghostly white emptiness; 3) phytoplankton, "responsible for half the oxygen we breathe," are dying.  Scientists claim "2/3 of world species may be gone by the end of the century." Coal, the worst offender, accounts for "44% of energy" in the United States, as China builds one new coal plant "per week."  Hell, you may think, what's the point of even trying?  I'll just go fishing. The answer is this film is not just about gloom because it empowers viewers with knowledge and real world examples to be part of the solution. In short, there will be no salmon if all fish in the ocean are dead.

Before I watched Revolution, it was reported Shell, responsible for new Arctic drilling (making Seattle Mayor Ed Murray an anti-drilling activist) plans on a 4 degree Celcius increase, even though scientists worldwide agree that would be catastrophic. Our planet is a blue jewel worn by an oil industry harlot named the U.S. Congress that puts a dollar value on Earth. This is the same as pretending water cares what you name it, or vital resources can be restored as fast as zeros and ones in banking computer databases.  Ask Californians how they will buy their way out of the worst drought in 1,200 years. Captain Kirk (William Shatner) wants a pipeline from Seattle to Lake Mead since California only has a widely-reported year of above-ground-water left. As a backup, the LA Times reported "decades worth of groundwater remain [unless rate of use increases]." The LA Times also noted the state lost 12 million trees due to the recent drought, with "millions more [dead] trees" expected.  To give you a sense of the value of water, consider the alleged $50 a gallon charged during the Oct. 17, 1989, Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco/Oakland or worse, a 2014 water bill "over $4,000" for a Detroit resident, as reported to the United Nations Human Rights Team investigation.  Thomas Jefferson wrote "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever."  The injustice we are collectively causing to future generations is unprecedented.

The film Revolution is about a different and better story.
Watch Now - Revolution

Watching the film with headphones in a public library, the beautiful photography made me cry for what is dead, dying, and what may be lost on land and in the sea, as three children stared at me in sympathetic confusion.  I hiked old growth forest that morning so I was more open than usual. Watching the children, I recalled the Iroquois Confederacy thought seven generations ahead long before white colonists arrived in their country as opposed to our senators elected to six year terms, representatives elected to two year terms, a president elected to a four year term, and business plans commonly much shorter.  Profits are taken and companies move on without regard to costs inflicted on others and future generations. Chilean economist Manfred Max-Neef made this clear with his idea of Barefoot Economics.

Watch the Revolution film, and reflect on what we can do to bear witness, and take action.  A friend has a Bruce Lee poster that says, “Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.”  I joined 350.org and supported students at my college wanting to divest from coal and fossil fuels. Foothill-De Anza Community College District in California already has.