Monday, August 29, 2011

Episode 77 (August 29, 2011): A Medley of Fish Sounds

Click to listen to episode (2:18).

Please see below (after the transcript and show notes) for links to news and upcoming events.

TRANSCRIPT


From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of August 29, 2011.

First, let me express sympathy for the victims of Hurricane Irene and gratitude to the utility workers, first responders, public officials, and citizens who assisted in preparation and response to that widespread storm.

Now this week we feature another series of mystery sounds.  Have a listen for about 20 seconds and see if you can guess what general group of animals is making this medley of crunching, drumming, and tapping sounds.  And here’s a hint: this medley would never be heard on the AIR-waves.

SOUND

If you guessed fish, you’re right!  The crunching you heard was a Northern Puffer, a small fish ranging from Newfoundland to Florida and found along the bottom of shallow Chesapeake Bay waters from spring to fall.  The drumming was an Atlantic Croaker, found in Atlantic and Gulf Coastal waters.  And the tapping was a Striped Cusk-eel, a small fish common in Atlantic coastal waters from New York to Florida.  Along with these three species, hundreds of fish species are known to make sounds, either to attract mates, show aggression, or for other as-yet-unknown reasons.  Thanks to Rodney Rountree of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for permission to use these recordings from his “Fish and Other Underwater Sounds” Web site.

For other water sounds and music, and for more Virginia water information, visit our Web site at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  From the Virginia Water Resources Research Center in Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.


SHOW NOTES
Acknowledgments: The sounds and information in this episode were previously used in episodes 18, 30, and 44.  The fish recordings in this episode were from Rodney Rountree’s Fish and Other Underwater Sounds Web site at http://www.fishecology.org/soniferous/justsounds.htm; used with permission.  The original source of many of the fish sounds at Dr. Rountree’s Web site is a file of fish sounds created by Marie Fish and William Mowbray as a companion to their book Sounds of Western North Atlantic Fishes: A Reference File of Biological Underwater Sounds (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1970).   
More information: For other fish sounds, visit the Cornell University MacCauley Library’s online archive of bird, amphibian, fish, and other sounds: http://macaulaylibrary.org/index.do.  For an introduction to sound-making by fish: What’s Making that Awful Racket?  Surprisingly, It May Be Fish, New York Times, 4/8/08.
Sources: Information on the Northern Puffer (Sphoeroides maculatus) was taken from the FishBase.org Web site; from the Chesapeake Bay Program’s online “Bay Field Guide” at http://www.chesapeakebay.net; and from Life in the Chesapeake Bay-3rd Edition, by Alice Jane Lippson and Robert L. Lippson (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), p.273. 


Information on Atlantic Croakers (Micropogonias undulates) is available from the FishBase.org Web site, and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Web site at http://www.asmfc.org.



Information on the Striped Cusk-eel (Ophidion marginatum) was taken from the FishBase.org Web site.  Information on sound production by the Striped Cusk-eel is available in “Sounds Produced by the Striped Cusk-Eel Ophidion marginatum (Ophidiidae) during Courtship and Spawning,” by David A. Mann, Jeanette Bowers-Altman and Rodney A. Rountree, Copeia, Vol. 1997, No. 3 (Aug. 1, 1997), pp. 610-612.


Recent Virginia Water News
            For news relevant to Virginia's water resources, please visit the Virginia Water Central News Grouper, available online at http://vawatercentralnewsgrouper.wordpress.com/.


Water Meetings and Other Events
            For events related to Virginia's water resources, please visit the Quick Guide to Virginia Water–related Conferences, Workshops, and  Other Events, online at http://vwrrc.vt.edu/VAConfQuickGuide.html.  The site includes a list of Virginia government policy and regulatory meetings occurring in the coming week.






Monday, August 22, 2011

Episode 76 (August 22, 2011): Jackson River Stream Rights Court Case

Click to listen to episode (2:23).

Please see below (after the transcript and show notes) for links to news and upcoming events.

TRANSCRIPT


From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of August 22, 2011.

This week we feature another series of mystery sounds.  Have a listen for about 20 seconds, and see if you can guess how these four sounds relate to a current controversy with a pre-Revolutionary War origin.

What connects the sounds of streamflow, paddling, reeling in a fishing line, and a judge’s gavel?  A lawsuit over stream fishing rights.  In the Alleghany County Circuit Court case of North South Development v. Garden, several property owners in the River’s Edge development along the Jackson River near Covington are suing two paddlers who waded and fished in the river section bordered by the property-owners’ land.  The property owners claim to have a “king’s grant” dating back to Virginia’s colonial period that gives them the right to restrict wading and fishing in that river section.  In the 1996 Kraft v. Burr decision, the Virginia Supreme Court held that property owners may claim such rights—even in navigable waters—if the property has a valid king’s grant that includes authority over the stream bottom.  The defendants claim that Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries maps identify the river section as open to public fishing, and that the Commonwealth should defend that designation.  On July 25, the Circuit Court judge refused the defendants’ motion to include the Commonwealth in the case, and the Virginia attorney general has refused to become involved.  As of August 18, no further court date had yet been scheduled.

For other water sounds and music, and for more Virginia water information, visit our Web site at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  From the Virginia Water Resources Research Center in Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.

SHOW NOTES:
Acknowledgments:  The fishing-line sound was from “Bass Fisherman’s Reel” on the 2004 CD “Virginia Wildlife,” copyright Timothy Seaman and Pine Wind Music, used with permission.
 
More information: The more complete case name is North South Development LLC, et al., v. Garden, et al., and the Alleghany County Circuit Court Case number is CL11000043.  The plaintiffs are seeking $10,000 in alleged damages from actions by the defendants in June 2010 and an injunction to prevent fishing in the disputed river section.  The lawsuit follows a criminal trespassing charge that was dropped in General District Court.  The Jackson River is a James River tributary.   

Sources used and for more information:
The defendants’ Web site (which includes court documents), http://www.virginiariversdefensefund.org/?page_id=21 .  This site is longer available as of 8/2/16; see instead https://www.facebook.com/Virginia-Rivers-Defense-Fund-120264111408908/.
Plaintiffs’ Web site (no longer online at of August 2, 2016).

Troubled waters: Landowners, angler wrangle over access to Va. river, Washington Post, 8/19/12;

Murky waters on the Jackson River: The Jackson River is again the center of an access fight between landowners and anglers, Roanoke Times, July 31, 2011 (no longer online as of Aug. 2, 2016).

Virginia Anglers Sued for Fishing on Property Deemed “Public” by Game Dept., MidCurrent, 6/28/11.

Virginia Water Center reports on recreational rights in Virginia waters:
Inland Recreational Fishing Rights in Virginia: Implications of the Virginia Supreme Court Case Kraft v. Burr, 1999, online at https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/49459.

Public Recreational Rights on Virginia’s Inland Streams,
1980, online at https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/49271.


Recent Virginia Water News
            For news relevant to Virginia's water resources, please visit the Virginia Water Central News Grouper, available online at http://vawatercentralnewsgrouper.wordpress.com/.


Water Meetings and Other Events
            For events related to Virginia's water resources, please visit the Quick Guide to Virginia Water–related Conferences, Workshops, and  Other Events, online at http://vwrrc.vt.edu/VAConfQuickGuide.html.  The site includes a list of Virginia government policy and regulatory meetings occurring in the coming week.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Episode 73 (August 1, 2011): "Bass Fisherman's Reel" by Timothy Seaman

Click to listen to episode (2:22) 

Please see below (after the transcript and show notes) for links to news and upcoming events.

TRANSCRIPT

From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of August 1, 2011.

This week we feature a traditional English tune performed to honor the lure of some of Virginia’s most popular fish.  Have a listen for about 35 seconds.

You’ve been listening to part of "Bass Fisherman’s Reel," performed by Timothy Seaman on his 2004 CD, "Virginia Wildlife."  Virginia’s waters are home to nine species of bass.  The five species in the Sunfish Family found in Virginia’s fresh waters include the well-known Smallmouth and Largemouth basses.  Three members of the Striped Bass family of freshwater and estuarine fish live in Virginia, including the species known as Striped Bass or Rockfish.  And Black Sea Bass inhabit Virginia’s coastal waters.  Predators on crustaceans, insects, other invertebrates, and fish, many of the basses are in turn highly prized by human anglers.  The Smallmouth Bass, for example, has been called "one of the most valued and studied fishes in North America," and the Striped Bass has been a popular and important fish in Virginia since colonial days.  Thanks to Mr. Seaman for permission to use this week’s music. 

For other water sounds and music, and for more Virginia water information, visit our Web site at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  From the Virginia Water Resources Research Center in Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.

SHOW NOTES

Acknowledgments: "Bass Fisherman's Reel," is from the "Virginia Wildlife" CD, copyright 2008 by Pine Wind Music, Inc., used with permission.  Timorthy Seaman did the CD in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.  For more information, see https://www3.dgif.virginia.gov/estore/proddetail.asp?prod=VW219

Sources: Information on bass in Virginia was taken from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Web site at http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/fish/ (7/29/11); the Virginia Marine Resources Commission Web site at http://www.mrc.virginia.gov/regulations/fr950.shtm; and Freshwater Fishes of Virginia, by R.E. Jenkins and N.M. Burkhead (Bethesda, Md.: American Fisheries Society, 1993; quote above from p.729).


Recent Virginia Water News
            For news relevant to Virginia's water resources, please visit the Virginia Water Central News Grouper, available online at http://vawatercentralnewsgrouper.wordpress.com/.

                        
Water Meetings and Other Events
            For events related to Virginia's water resources, please visit the Quick Guide to Virginia Water–related Conferences, Workshops, and  Other Events, online at http://vwrrc.vt.edu/VAConfQuickGuide.html.  The site includes a list of Virginia government policy and regulatory meetings occurring in the coming week.