Monday, August 17, 1998
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The University Daily Kansan
Section A - Page 17
State health officials are concerned about the level of contaminants in the Kansas River fish but that has not stopped local fisherman from..
Taking the Bait
By Dan Curry Special to the Kansan
Two dark folds of beef liver dangle from the hook as Corky Williams cocks his 17-foot, black and yellow striped fishing rod and casts. The blue line sails out over the turgid Kansas River, landing with a plop amid chunks of driftwood, spume and Styrofoam cups that float in the eddies of the Bowersock Dam. Just north of downtown Lawrence.
A sign stands at the top of the levee behind Williams. In square yellow lettering it reads：“Regular Consumption of Bottom Feeding Fish from This Area May Present Long-Term Health Problems.”
Williams is one of many fishermen who religiously fish for Kansas River catfish near the Massachusetts Street bridge, despite the warning against eating these hefty bottom-feeders.
Williams stands ankle-deep in the river, methodically reeling in his line. His jeans are soaked to the knees. He wears a red baseball cap to shade his face from the sun.
Beside him, his tackle box lies open on the bleached skeleton of a stranded tree. In tiny compartments lie little and big hooks, spools of blue line, pliers, sinkers, rubber worms, lures, a jackknife and a parcel of beef liver.
"Beef liver's good because it stays on," he said as he teased the nodding rod.
Not too far away, a carp he just caught swims in tight circles inside a white. four-gallon bucket.
Today, Williams is going for anything that is biting, but the prize of the river is the catfish, he said.
"Ifished this river all my life," he said. "I've seen a lot of big ones caught out here."
williams said his biggest catch was a 45-pound flathead catfish. He has caught smaller catfish with worms, chicken hearts, minnows and even hot dogs.
Williams said he gives away the fish more often than he eats them, but when he does decide to eat them. he likes the fish cooked in cornmeal.
The Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department put the sign up in 1993 after the Kansas Department of Health and Environment detected chlordane in the tissues of the catfish. They issued a report recommending that a warning be posted, said Richard Ziesenis, the county director of environmental health. The warning applies to the stretch of the river between Eudora and the downstream side of the Bowersock Dam.
Steve Cringan, an environmental scientist at the state health department, said chlordane is a carcinogenic compound that was used as a pesticide until the Environmental Protection Agency banned it in 1988. The chemical gets into the river and settles in the river bottom where catfish ingest it. The chlordane builds up in the fishes' fatty tissues, where it can reach concentrations tens of thousands times greater than what is in the water, Cringan said.
Cringan said that smaller amounts of mercury and DDT were in the fish tissue, but that the herbicide
atrazine, a primary pollutant of the river, was not.
Many fisherman fish the river only for sport. Three types of catfish - channel, blue and flathead - populate the river, said Richard Sanders, a fishing biologist at the Department of Wildlife & Parks.
He said a record-sized channel catfish that weighed 35 pounds was caught below the Bowersock Dam, and blue and flathead catfish weighing more than 80 pounds also have been caught in the Kansas River. Blues and flatheads can reach weights of more than 100 pounds, he said.
John Trager, a University of Kansas graduate who said he caught the largest catfish ever in Potter Lake in 1992, sports a bushy beard and a blue bandanna tied around his forehead. He stood on the levee and scouted the river before he chose where to fish while Reba, his black terrier-Labrador mix, waited near his side.
"Flatheads, they're the ultimate," he said.
He calls the thrill of catching one of these fish "The Old Man and the Sea syndrome," referring to the Ernest Hemingway novel.
"You're trying to catch the biggest one out there, and you end up loving it," he said.
Trager loves to talk about fishing and plans to start a fishing-adventure company. He took out photos from his wallet. Each shows him using both hands to hold up a catfish by its platter-sized mouth. The bodies of the fish are longer and wider than Trager's torso. They glow milky white from the flash of the camera, their long, thick whiskers glistening with water. Many photos show the levee or the Bowersock Dam in the background.
Trager said a fisherman can fight a catfish for 90 minutes before netting it. The challenge of fishing is battling with the catfish as it maneuvers in an underwater obstacle course of logs and rocks, he said.
"The older fish know lots of tricks." he said.
Another photo shows a 73-pounder, the largest Trager has ever caught. He let the fish go, he said. He calls this practice "selective harvesting," in which only the most plentiful fish are kept and the rest are returned to the river. That way other people can catch the big ones too, he said.
Trager doesn't eat fish, and he's glad the health department put the sign up. He said that other people, however, have eaten them without harm. He gestured toward two fishermen carrying their nets and poles on their shoulders as they wound their way down to the river.
"They took home a couple of flatheads and chowed them." Williams said.
Down at the river's edge, Tyrone Frank knelt on a concrete bulwark of the dam. The evening shadow of the bridge fell across him as he packed away his tackle. Although he failed to catch any fish, Frank said he would have just thrown them back in the river anyway.
"I wouldn't eat two ounces of it." he said. He pointed toward the river below him where the water
sfudge-colored.
"This is toxic." he said.
William Chaney, who has fished the river for 10 years, isn't so sure.
"Sometimes it's clear," he said. "Sometimes it's dirty."
He woke up at 4:30 a.m. in Kansas City so that he could be ready to fish by 6 a.m.
Chaney said he didn't often eat the fish, but when he does, he enjoys them fried, grilled, baked or breaded. Usually he gives them away to older people, he said.
Chaney doesn't believe the warning.
"Politicians and bureaucracy pass these laws," he said.
Chaney said he has never known anyone to become sick from setting the fish
Cringan said that he has fished the river and that he didn't think there was any great harm in eating some of the fish once in a while. He says his department recommended the sign to inform people of the potential hazards of eating the fish.
"We issue advisories based on pretty low risk factors," he said. "Some people are worried about any level of contamination. We find the major contamination occurs downstream, 10 miles from cities. Fish upstream were much less contaminated than fish
downstream."
Cringan also said that the recommendations were based on a 70-year model of continual exposure to the fish.
"They are kind of a worst-case scenario," he said.
"Over the last ten years, we've seen some substantial declines," he said.
Until then, Cringan said there was a greater chance for fishermen to be struck by lightning than to die from eating the fish in the river.
Illustration by Jason Benavides
The state Health Department recommends that people limit their consumption of bottom-feed
ing fish to one 5 ounce serving a month. It came to
month. It says to trim the fat off the fish and avoid frying it. This will remove many of the chemicals that are concentrated in the fat. Smaller fish are safer to eat because they are younger and have
less exposure to the contaminants. More
Directory of Religious Organizations
Your guide to religious organizations and churches in Lawrence.
University Daily Kansan
Buddhist
KANSAS ZEN CENTER Daily Meditation Practice & Retreats 1423 New York St. Ph. 331-2274
Unity
416 Lincoln 841-1447 Moment of Inspiration 843-8832
Unity Church of Lawrence
Sunday Celebration 11:00am.
A Course In Miracles weekly class
Wednesday Night
metaphysical studies
IMMANUEL LUTHERAN CHURCH
AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT CENTER
Church Open for
Study. Sun. - Thur.
8am-12pm
8:30am-Traditional/Liturgical With Communion 11:00am-Contemporary With Communion
Lutheran Student Fellowship Free Suppers/Programs-Thursday 5:30pm
15th & Iowa
843-0620
Sunday Worship
Fr. Vince Krische, director
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
Reconciliation 4:00 p.m. Saturday or by appointment
Get involved in social, spiritual and
Mass celebrated at 4:45 p.m. Saturday,
9.11 a.m. 5.10 p.m. Sunday
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus
educational opportunities this semester.
Get involved in social, spiritual and
church
Trinity Episcopal Church
1011 Vermont Street - 843-6166
Sunday Schedule: 7:45 AM - Holy Eucharist
1631 Crescent Road
10:30 AM - Holy Eucharist
Weekday Schedule: 9:15 AM - Morning Prayer
9:15 AM - Christian Education
Thursday/Chapel
Monday thru Thursday / Chapel
6:00 PM - Holy Eucharist
Thursday / Chapel
Presbyterian
Grace Evangelical Presbyterian Church
3312 Calvin Drive (North on Kasold)
843-2005
The Rev. Thomas A. Momberg, Rector The Rev. Kelly A. Demo, Associate Rector
Beginning August 23rd
Sunday Worship Services at 8:15 and 10:45 am. Special invitation to college students to worship with us and participate in our college ministry programs.
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
TOGETHER WE GROW
TOGETHER WE GROW
SUNDAY:
WORSHIP AT 8:30 & 11:00 A.M.
CHURCH SCHOOL AT 9:30 A.M.
ART DONNELLY, PASTOR 2415 CLINTON PARKWAY 843-4171
Clinton Parkway Assembly of God
Sunday:
Weekly Schedule
Christian Education 9:00 a.m. (All Ages)
Morning Worship 10:00 a.m.
Sunday Evening Praise 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday Family/Youth Ministries 7:00 p.m.
CHI ALPHA Christian Fellowship meets in Pioneer Room (Burge Union)
Every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Begins Aug 26.
Campus Pastor Steve Swanson 542-1101.
We are a Christ-centered ministry.
You will enjoy God's word, music, praise and worship.
Ronald D. Mickley, Sr. Pastor
3200 Clinton Parkway 843-7189
"...the desert becomes a fertile field and the fertile field will seem like a forest." ts. 32:15
FIRST CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE
1942 Massachusetts St. Lawrence, Kansas 60646
Phone (785) 843-3940 Fax (785) 842-4689
First Family welcomes you to an atmosphere of
friendship, love and acceptance where "New Beginnin
friendship, love and acceptance where "New Beginnings"
and use for each of us
"20-30 Something" Class meets every Sunday at 8:30 a.m.
Branches of Life ... 8:30 A.M.
Worship Celebration ... 9:30 A.M.
Children's Worship ... 9:30 A.M.
In Home Bible Studies.
Branches of Life...8:30 A.M.
In Home Bible Studies...6:00 P.M.
Sunday Worship Opportunities
Wednesday Oasis
Senior Pastor
Dinner Fellowship (by reservation) 6:00 P.M.
Donald D. Dunn
Dinner Fellowship
(by reservation) 6:00 P.M.
Adult Bible Study Groups;
Adult Bible Study Groups;
Teens & Children's Activities
Nursery & Kids Available .. 7:00 P.M.
Brent McClun
Youth/Worship Assistant
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