Silflay Hraka

Coors has rolled out its low carb beer, Aspen Edge, and the reviews are already pouring in.

Virtually no taste-like drinking seltzer in a glass that you poured a beer into and drank an hour before

overall gross

I am steadfast in my belief that this particular beer will never cross my lips again.

But!

If you drink Ultra or Rock Green Light, you will be switching over to Aspen Edge

Taste is better than other low carbs

The Ultra looked like water compared to Aspen Edge.

I’m not the kind of person who would drink it–but I’m a beer geek. I’d rather give up beer while on a diet than drink low-carb beer. However, if you’re not like me, (and most people aren’t) Aspen Edge appears to be a least a step up from the other low-carbs.

State officials are considering closing another 30,000 acres of inshore waters to oyster dredging.

Dredging has been named as one of the reasons the state has seen a long-term decline in oyster populations.

An abundance of oysters in North Carolina waters began to drop in the late 19th century following a period of high dredging activity when fishermen, having depleted the resources in Long Island Sound and the Delaware River, began moving from state to state with oyster dredges, Marshall said.

Studies indicate that dredging is not only bad for the oyster population–it also completely destroys the seabottom, which impacts the overall fish population. There’s a diagram of a scallop dredge here–I image not much at all is left after one of those passes by.

The more areas closed to dredging, the more mature the seafloor environment is. The more mature the seafloor environment is, the more fish it can support. It’s as simple as “No Wetlands, No Seafood.”

“Less Dredging, More Seafood.”

Carrie Nation comes to Kenya.

Chang’aa brewers work throughout East Africa, where the brew in slang is called Rapid Results and is most popular in poor neighborhoods with high unemployment. Moral and medical concerns about chang’aa come up now and then and are almost always forgotten or dismissed.

But lately the women who make Africa’s homemade alcoholic brew are facing their most powerful and persistent enemy: other women. Chang’aa dens are destroying lives, increasing domestic violence and causing divorce, several women’s groups claim.

The problem with Carrie Nations is, if they succeed, soon after come the Al Capones.

Plus, the hangman won’t be able to do his job.

Postscript: A night out on the town at a beer and chang’aa bar.

Here’s a study claiming that hog farms are no threat to North Carolina’s water quality.

After major flooding and hurricanes in 1995-96, North Carolina received federal grants to clear fallen trees and woody debris clogging rivers and streams, to prevent future flooding. The DENR report admitted this factor made it impossible to blame hog farms for the decreases in biological indicators in the regional waters:

?Zealous pursuit of this goal often totally cleared all woody material from the stream, material that is a critical habitat for both fish and invertebrates. For some streams, heavy machinery was used along the banks. … It is difficult to separate out the effects of de-snagging in these streams from the potential impact of increased numbers of hog farms within the same area.?
…
The data clearly show the water quality within and downstream of the hog farming areas is as good now as it was before the hog industry expansion. Despite a tenfold increase in the hog populations, there has been no increase in nutrient concentrations, no reduction in dissolved oxygen levels, and no increase in sediment loads.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t care if hog farms aren’t an overall threat to NC waters. I still don’t want the waste lagoons overflowing during floods and adding their oh-so-delicately-named “sediment load” to the state’s watersheds. Prevent that from happening, and Smithfield Foods can build all the hog farms it wants.

Preach on, Brother.

“Beer is a much more complex and diverse beverage than wine. At its simplest, each grape is its own winery possessing everything necessary to make wine, whereas a brewer has a cornucopia of malt and hop combinations, along with traditional flavouring agents, to choose from when concocting a recipe. This means that there are endless permutations and variations in beer.”

Postscript: Here’s an article on pairing beer with cheese, but it’s damn hard to read. The author appears not to believe in indentation.

A 4 pound, 1 ounce hickory shad caught in a Neuse river tributary has finally been listed as a state record, though there were a few bumps on the road to that recognition.

The problem was that the fish was so large that no one was sure it was a hickory shad.

”Many record-sized fish often do not resemble their smaller counterparts and identifying these fish can be somewhat difficult, even for trained biologists,” Barwick said.

Excellent. Next 18 inch puppy drum I catch is getting turned in as a record-breaking croaker.

It’s also a resume enhancer.

Fishing the carolina-rigged floating worm.

One of the scarier predictions for the aftermath of Hurricane Isabel was that the fish populations in the Chowan and Roanoke rivers would be devastated.

Turns out the predicted death of those two rivers didn’t come about after all.

I guess I’m not as smart as I think I am, particularly when I start trying to outthink Mother Nature. I hope everyone will accept my apology.

I printed what I was told, and that’s not acceptable, even if my source was a fisheries biologist. I should have known better, particularly after what has been said about the Neuse River in the past. Believe me, it will not happen to me again. At least the conclusion was good

Wrong prediction or no, it takes a man to go back and apologize for something probably he only remembers in the first place.

You won’t catch me doing it.

Postscript: The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is planning on stocking the Roanoke and Chowan rivers with bass anyway, just in case all those fish caught over the weekend happened to be all the fish there were.

Number of subadult bass to be released: 30,000
Cost: $2 each, though 6000 destined for the Roanoke have been paid for by the Bass Pro Shops.

South Carolina is creating two inshore artificial reefs in Winyah Bay, just south of Myrtle Beach, in an effort to improve recreational fishing in the area.

The reefs will consist of 120 two-foot high concrete habitat modules coated with oyster shells in order to simulate natural development of an intertidal oyster reef. The reef units will encircle the permanent yellow marker buoys that were placed in the center of each reef site. The SCDNR will monitor these sites to determine if this type of reef is an effective method to improve recreational fishing.

I wonder if they’ll do the monitoring via fish cam. Bound to be cheaper than sampling via a boat, though I suspect a boat trip would be a lot more fun.

Postscript: Note how the money for the reefs was raised.

“The program would not be possible without funding and support from the Saltwater Recreational Fishing License Program. These funds ultimately come from recreational fishermen who purchase a saltwater fishing license each year,” said Robert Boyles, SCDNR’s Deputy Director for the Marine Resources Division. “There will be an increased focus over the next two years on the enhancement of inshore habitat that is easily accessible by small boat anglers.”