Bass Fishing Aug - Sept 2020 | Page 16

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. 14 FLWFISHING.COM | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2020