A Life Wasted

I watch critters.  Sometimes, I feel an attachment of sorts to the critters of the Bayou and surrounding areas. Perhaps this is a bit surreal to some folks but, think of it this way, these critters are a lot like my pets.  Just because they live outside all year round, I do not feed most of them and I surely cannot pet some of them, they are definitely like my pets..or friends!  This attachment causes me a bit of anger when someone needlessly kills one of the critters.  I figure that each creature is here for a reason..that reason may not be to our liking at times but still there is a reason.  It all has to do with that balance of nature that I am always talking about to everyone.  Mess up that balance and a place withers and dies.  For an example, I was telling Mark about a family of rats that live down under the pier.  They have runs through the marsh and holes dug so they can escape predators.  He made the comment that we should set traps to rid the area of the rats.  NO!!  As long as they stay in the marsh, I have no problem with them whatsoever!  They perform a needed service.  Rats are scavengers that clean up others' messes!  Any leftover fish that the osprey or otters discard, the rats are ready to haul away to their nest.  Can you imagine the stench of the marsh if someone did not clean up behind others?  Anyway, that said, the rats are safe as long as they do not venture near the Little Bayou House.

My whole point of this rant comes to head with the senseless killing of one of the predators of the waters.  A small gar was floating near the shoreline. The fish was about three feet in length and quite lovely!  It had obviously bitten someone's bait and was "knocked in the head" when they caught it.  This does make me sad as there was no reason to kill it!  My goodness, Folks!  Cut the line if you do not want to keep the fish!  A lot of folks think gar meat is a fine feast but most of us would rather just let it go on its merry way. One thing that is quite important to remember about gars if you ever plan to eat one..their eggs are highly toxic to humans!  DO NOT EAT GAR ROE!!!!  Simple as that!  So..if you do not plan to eat the fish...cannot eat the roe...refuse to use the critter as crab bait...then let it live!  No hook is worth the life of a beautiful fish like this!

Note of interest!...Back in the day, the Native Americans used to use most parts of the gar.  The meat was smoked and eaten.  The hard scales could be attached to arrows as arrowheads if necessary.  This provided an instant weapon!  The hide or skin of the gar with scales attached could be used as armor!  Sort of interesting that we as a society have found it far to easy to be a "throw away" people.  Not once would we consider to use parts of a critter in such creative ways.  Perhaps it is time to look back at our ancestors and learn a few lessons.  One being...if you kill something...you better use it!!!  This reminds me of an incident from a few years back.  Some of Michael's buddies were fishing on the pier.  I had wandered down to see how they were doing.  They proudly showed me a dozen or so small fish in their cooler.  I made the comment that they at least had supper and they looked at me incredulously!  "What?  Eat the fish?  Nah, we just throw them back over when we are through fishing."  Ha!  That is what they thought!  I told them that they would learn to clean fish right then and there!  They would take the fish home and eat them or they would never fish from my pier again!  Needless to say, it took them hours to clean those little croakers and they did eat them!  Now if they want to come fishing and they do not want to clean the fish..they had better do the catch and release!  Do not kill my critters needlessly!!!!