THE
FRONT PAGE
Acadia National Park
Bar Harbor, Maine
The Great American Outdoors Act
On June 17, the U.S. Senate voted 73-25 to pass the Great
American Outdoors Act, which made its way to the House of
Representatives on July 22 and passed with overwhelming bipartisan
support, 310-107.
The legislation will make permanent $900 million per year in
funding already in place for the Land and Water Conservation
Fund, as well as allocate another $9.5 billion over five years for
repairs in national parks and other public land. It also establishes
the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Fund.
The funding outlined in the Great American Outdoors Act serves
as much-needed support for more than 400 national parks sites,
with $6.5 billion earmarked specifically for those lands.
A study announced by a bipartisan group of U.S. senators that
included Ohio Republican Rob Portman, Virginia Democrat Mark
Warner, Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander and Maine independent
Angus King suggests the Great American Outdoors Act
could also support an average of 40,300 direct jobs and more than
100,000 total direct and indirect jobs over the next five years and
help to alleviate the $20 billion backlog of maintenance projects
already on tap for the National Parks Service.
Long expected to pass in the House after receiving ample support
in the Senate, the Great American Outdoors Act is a lifeline for some
of the country’s most important and treasured natural resources and
a positive step forward for the future of our public lands.
PHOTO BY MATT PACE
a legacy of kindness
> SMALL ACTS OF KINDNESS
sometimes involve really big fish.
In May, staff at Honolulu’s
Straub Medical Center and The
Queen’s Medical Center got their
fill of a group of strangers’ kindness
in the form of 220 pounds
of fresh-caught yellowfin tuna.
The group of five fishermen,
which included the executive
producer of the diving show
Hawaii Skin Diver TV, Kyle
Nakamoto, managed to land a
pair of yellowfins that totaled
220 pounds. They sent the fish
to a distributor for preparation
Edited by Justin Onslow
and delivery to the medical professionals
on the front lines of
the COVID-19 pandemic.
As reported by Alaa Elassar
of CNN, Nakamoto and his team
were inspired to undertake
their act of kindness by a 104-
year-old local fisherman named
Setsuo Todoroki, who often
donated fish he’d caught to
those in need.
Todoroki passed away
recently, and Nakamoto and his
crew wanted to carry on his
legacy. They’re certainly doing
a fine job of that.
ALLIGATOR FOUND IN KENTUCKY LAKE
On May 23, a Kentucky couple alerted Kentucky
Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources officials to the
presence of an alligator near the Kentucky Dam Marina.
According to reports, officials found the approximately 3-
foot-long alligator dead when they arrived, likely due to
wounds sustained from a boat propeller.
Alligators aren’t native to any Kentucky or Tennessee
waters (Kentucky Lake spans into both states), and officials
believe the specimen was formerly an illegal pet that was
released into Kentucky Lake, as reptiles are unable to survive
water temperatures colder than 40 degrees – to say nothing
of how an alligator could have navigated into Kentucky Lake
otherwise.
This isn’t the first time an alligator has been found in
Kentucky waters. In 2015, a live alligator was spotted in
Skaggs Creek (near Barren River Lake in southern Kentucky),
and in January 2018, a frozen alligator was pulled from the
waters of the Cumberland River in Harlan County. In both
cases, officials believe the reptiles were illegal pets that
escaped captivity or were set free by their owners.
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FLWFISHING.COM | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2020