From the University of New Hampshire and the “best day fishing is still better than the best day worrying over climate change” department.
DURHAM, N.H. – Whether it’s casting a fishing line, launching a boat, or taking a dip to cool off, most people heading to a lake rarely think about how climate change is impacting their overall recreation experience. However, more often than not, it does. Research at the University of New Hampshire shows that as unfavorable water quality conditions in lakes continue to rise, anglers, boaters and beach goers are using various coping mechanisms that can alter their behavior, from switching to a different location or activity to simply abandoning the experience altogether.
“Some of these people are driving two to three hundred miles to take a lake vacation, only to arrive to a sign that says the beach is closed because of E. coli,” said Michael Ferguson, assistant professor of recreation management and policy. “Increasing water temperatures and fluctuating water levels, as a result of global climate change, are expected to intensify these adverse environmental conditions and researchers and natural resource managers need to better understand how it effects the behaviors and habits of recreationists so that they can educate the public and better prepare for future conditions.”
In the study, researchers looked at the coping behavior of recreationists along the 77 miles of the Pennsylvania Lake Erie coastline. The popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts is home to a multitude of public parks and recreation facilities with beaches, fishing piers, and boat launches with over 4.2 million annual visitors each year. The concern by scientists and natural resource managers is that ongoing water quality issues such as harmful algal blooms and E. coli bacteria could impact the way visitors perceive the physical environment and effect their overall recreation experience. Researchers surveyed visitors in 13 publicly accessible coastal parks and protected areas and found that those aware of, and impacted by, water quality issues on any given day often altered their behavior to cope with the situation. In some cases, swimmers postponed their plunge until later in the day, anglers decided to travel further into deeper waters or headed to another inland lake, and some visitors ultimately decided to leave and were not likely to return.
“While this study took place in the Great Lakes, this is just a snapshot of what is happening to many similar bodies of water across the country,” said Ferguson. “This is a very real problem. From a recreational standpoint, these coping mechanisms could have a large impact on not only the public who are looking to enjoy the lakes, but also on the towns and surrounding areas that depend on the outdoor recreation and tourism economy.”
According to the Outdoor Industry Association, consumers spend $887 billion annually on outdoor recreation and the industry creates 7.6 million jobs. The pervasive presence of global climate change suggests the severity of environmental conditions will likely continue to increase. The researchers say along with trying to combat these environmental changes, more effective policies and procedures are needed to better educate the public and help them, and natural resource managers, cope and adapt to a changing environment.
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Notice how they don’t even bother to demonstrate that the waters actually have warmed.
If the models say that it is warming, then it is and therefore the water must also have warmed.
No need to trouble yourself actually collecting data.
Hopefully my lake will be warmer up here in Canada.
This public informational sponsored by “Canadians for a Warmer Canada”.
Horse-pucky – – – or rather “gull-pucky” .
A major study published in May 2018 found that “In this case, [in looking for the cause of E. Coli outbreaks closing beaches] the team was looking at gull species. Across all of the sampling sites, gulls were identified as the major source of E. coli that led to beach closings.”
Gull poop — not climate change.
ref: DOI: 10.2134/jeq2017.11.0461
“Identifying and Eliminating Sources of Recreational Water Quality Degradation along an Urban Coast”, Journal of Environment Quality, May 2018
Meredith B. Nevers, et al.
As Reported in ScienceDaily.
I’ve noticed monarch butterflies clustering around seagull poop, apparently it is a food source when there is nothing else around. Maybe they need that before flying across a large body of water. Just saying … getting rid of gull poop … yes gull poop … may have unforeseen consequences.
Hmmmm…placed in the wrong post…
“Didn’t see the first E-Coli for about a half-hour. Big un. 2000-nanometer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookin’ from the front end to the back end. What we didn’t know, was that our vacation was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn’t even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, E-Coli come cruisin’ by, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. It was sorta like you see in the calendars, you know the infantry squares in the old calendars like the Battle of Waterloo and the idea was the E-Coli come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin’ and hollerin’ and sometimes that E-Coli he go away… but sometimes he wouldn’t go away.
“Sometimes that E-Coli looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a E-Coli is he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn’t even seem to be livin’… ’til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The ocean turns red, and despite all your poundin’ and your hollerin’ those E-Coli’s come in and… they infect you to pieces.
“You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don’t know how many E-Coli there were, maybe a trillion. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour. Thursday mornin’, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boson’s mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he’d been infected, and gangrened in half below the waist.
“At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot, lot younger than Mr. Hooper here, anyway he spotted us and a few hours later a big ol’ fat PBY come down and started to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the E-Coli’s took the rest, June the 29th, 2020.”
– Quint – Spring Vacation 2020: This Time, it’s Infectious!
Here is another great example of climate change at work. There is no way that anyone can claim that Greenland will lose the claimed 200 Gt of ice this year. Look at the margins of the continent, and the difference in the melt in this year as compared to the average melt trend.
All the “who knew ” frivolous lawsuits would actually bear fruit if they asked the question “who knew ” in government that California’s peak electric power capacity is almost 15% below what it should be. As a result government officials put at risk lives and the economy in places like California .
Now that is a lawsuit waiting to happen .
A workmate who was a keen fisherman always emphasised the point that it was the “act” that was important not the catch as he would spend a day by himself in pleasant surroundings watching the wildlife and weather.
James Bull
What really affects your day on the Great Lakes during tourist season, mid July to beginning of September, is not climate change but wind direction. Offshore wind, water cold and clear, and you don’t have to go far offshore to fish for trout and salmon. Onshore wind, water warm and dirtier, have to go further offshore to fish for trout and salmon. The Great Lakes average temperatures have not really changed, they are almost the same year to year. Wind direction however can change the temperature at a location by 20 to 30F in hours. I doubt the researchers were aware of this.
This is because of E. coli, said Michael Ferguson, assistant professor of recreation management and policy. “Increasing water temperatures and fluctuating water levels,
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Imagination is not enough to gauge, unable to gauge which “studies” are still waiting to get performed to warn of alleged “threatening climate change”.