I can't even vent my frustration about an incident I have recently been dealing with...one that could have easily been avoided.
I went to the River bend farm to do a bit of fishing. As many of you know from my posting under Bedlem, before I changed names, I am an avid carp angler. The fishing at River bend is great, not the biggest fish but fun and since I have been doing a bit more fly fishing lately it is an easily accessible location.
Anyway I digress a bit, I arrived around 530 pm on June 29th with my roommate Nate to do a bit of angling. As we approached I noticed the canal almost completely drained. I approached staff near the bridge and inquired as to the cause. I was told that they were currently re-filling the canal from an "accident" earlier.
"Accident?" I said
I was then told that a state hired contractor, hired to work on the middle "control gate" accidentally left it open over night and drained the canal. I shook my head in disgust and headed home, knowing that I would have some work ahead of me in the morning.
I returned on June 30th around 7 am. The canal was low but mostly full again. The river dropped over 3 feet due to being diverted into the canal...and this is only the beginning of the problem.
Just beyond the visitors center, a mile long section of the Blackstone Canal was lined with dead fish. White suckers, perch, pickerel, large mouth bass, golden shiners, carp...hundreds of fish dead. The overall attitude of the park staff was " o well..what do you want us to do about it?"
Sadly Masswildlife's best solution was to re-open the gates and let the dead fish flow down river...
The entire ordeal has frustrated, disgusted and basically just pissed me off. Anyway I documented it as well as a re-visit 4 days later. I post them here as well just to open peoples eyes. To say, think about your actions. Not only did these fish not have to die, but the domino effect of extremely low river levels to almost premature drought conditions..with over a week passed with 90+ degree weather this was only the start of the impact this one incident had.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPjNagfBbA0[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O-s7wVaZ6I&feature=related[/youtube]
I went to the River bend farm to do a bit of fishing. As many of you know from my posting under Bedlem, before I changed names, I am an avid carp angler. The fishing at River bend is great, not the biggest fish but fun and since I have been doing a bit more fly fishing lately it is an easily accessible location.
Anyway I digress a bit, I arrived around 530 pm on June 29th with my roommate Nate to do a bit of angling. As we approached I noticed the canal almost completely drained. I approached staff near the bridge and inquired as to the cause. I was told that they were currently re-filling the canal from an "accident" earlier.
"Accident?" I said
I was then told that a state hired contractor, hired to work on the middle "control gate" accidentally left it open over night and drained the canal. I shook my head in disgust and headed home, knowing that I would have some work ahead of me in the morning.
I returned on June 30th around 7 am. The canal was low but mostly full again. The river dropped over 3 feet due to being diverted into the canal...and this is only the beginning of the problem.
Just beyond the visitors center, a mile long section of the Blackstone Canal was lined with dead fish. White suckers, perch, pickerel, large mouth bass, golden shiners, carp...hundreds of fish dead. The overall attitude of the park staff was " o well..what do you want us to do about it?"
Sadly Masswildlife's best solution was to re-open the gates and let the dead fish flow down river...
The entire ordeal has frustrated, disgusted and basically just pissed me off. Anyway I documented it as well as a re-visit 4 days later. I post them here as well just to open peoples eyes. To say, think about your actions. Not only did these fish not have to die, but the domino effect of extremely low river levels to almost premature drought conditions..with over a week passed with 90+ degree weather this was only the start of the impact this one incident had.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPjNagfBbA0[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O-s7wVaZ6I&feature=related[/youtube]
I wish the they could have the contractors do the clean up on their dime under the supervision of mass wildlife. That would teach them not to make this type of mistake ever again.
haha, I agree...if it was just about anything else, that would be the case. too bad it's 'just a bunch of fish'...construction contractors have to fix their mistakes on their dime/time all the time when it costs humans time or money...should be the same thing!
I wish the they could have the contractors do the clean up on their dime under the supervision of mass wildlife. That would teach them not to make this type of mistake ever again.
haha, I agree...if it was just about anything else, that would be the case. too bad it's 'just a bunch of fish'...construction contractors have to fix their mistakes on their dime/time all the time when it costs humans time or money...should be the same thing!
Tell me about it. The sad fact is that the state work is so convoluted, they hired workers to work at the parks who have no training in the ecosystems under their care, then any actual work that needs to be done has to be contracted out to people who have even less of a clue as to the ecosystem...then the contractors are given no supervision at all!
The incident did not need to happen..even worse was the general "who cares" attitude of the state employees once it did. When I first told the staff , one of them actually said "Yeah, what do you want us to do about it?"
I was like, "Your job maybe?"
As to contacting news organizations. I know a few people have made calls and I have spoken to a member of the Whitinsville division of the Telegram. Please feel free to contact who ever you want though. Sate offices to complain or news outlets to raise awareness. Point them to the videos and they can contact DCR as well as myself at erik@blackstonecarp.com.
I was asked by the reporter I spoke to as to what 'd like to see happen. Honestly the incident cannot be changed now..what I want to see happen is DCR simply do their job. To have safety nets in place to help stop "mistakes". How hard would it have been to make sure someone checked in on the contractors through the day and once they left to ensure things were closed up? Or god forbid something does actually happen again..to at least have the willingness to make it right.
PS...yeah I'm still here Napa
I've just been busy with a move, change of name etc. Still putting out the big fish though, trust me on that 
Man I just came across this .... I am speechless.... This can never happen again.....You did one hell of a job with documenting it...
To you Great Job. To those who had no regard for wild life in any capicity.....Well ....................I'm still speechless.....
To you Great Job. To those who had no regard for wild life in any capicity.....Well ....................I'm still speechless.....
