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Here’s what’s worth reading today, Wednesday, July 10, 2019:
Family of woman killed by sharks in Bahamas shares new details of attack, calls for “safety measures” The family of a 21-year-old California woman who died in a shark attack last month in the Bahamas is calling for tour groups in the Caribbean country to be better prepared for emergencies. Jordan Lindsey’s family released a statement “out of concern for others who may be faced with a life-threatening incident while on vacation in the Bahamas.” Though some news stories reported that other family members saw the sharks prior to the attack and yelled out to the pair, the family said that wasn’t true. It also wasn’t true that Sandy Toes staffers tried to help Lindsey as the attack was happening, the family added. “A few news reports indicated that Sandy Toes’ staff members jumped in the water to help but that is incorrect, no one jumped in. Shockingly, no staff mobilized to assist in any way,” they said.
Drone footage shows sharks fighting each other off Cape Cod: Researchers are hoping to learn more about white shark interaction from drone footage that captured two sharks interacting with each other off the coast of Chatham. Marine researchers have seen “plenty of evidence” that suggests that white sharks off of Massachusetts beaches aggressively interact with each other, said Greg Skomal, senior fisheries scientist with the state Division of Marine Fisheries. Skomal said he often sees bite marks and scars on male and female sharks, but this video is some of the first visual evidence of one of these interactions taking place. “We have assumed for years based on those marks that these kinds of social interactions are happening, but we’d never seen one before,” Skomal said.
Finally, GOP lawmakers prove conservation and conservatism go hand-in-hand: Today marks a historic day in building a new brand of the Republican Party. With the official launch of the Roosevelt Conservation Caucus, federally-elected Republicans across the country are proving that conservation and conservatism go hand-in-hand. The Roosevelt Conservation Caucus will focus on Republican-led reforms around National Parks funding, wildlife conservation, ocean preservation and private property rights. Republican leaders in the RCC herald from conservative states like Texas, South Carolina, Alaska and Montana, proving this is a topic that will be of immense importance to Republicans in moderate and deep-red areas.
Major Missouri landowner backs MDC strategy to eradicate feral hogs: One of Missouri’s largest private landowners will follow the conservation department’s lead and ban feral hog hunting on its property. The LAD Foundation owns 147,000 acres in southeast Missouri, much of it adjoining the Mark Twain National Forest. The land was acquired by conservationist Leo A. Drey in the 1950s, and he and his LAD Foundation worked to restore thousands of acres that had been logged too hard.
In Colorado, most state trust land is closed to publichunting. What gives? Colorado is a robust hunting state with the largest elk herd in the nation, but hunters there are still scrambling to level the playing field when it comes to accessing nearly 3 million acres of state-owned trust land. The good news is Colorado hunters seem to have an ally in Gov. Jared Polis when it comes to opening more lands to recreation. “Coloradans truly understood that a vote for me was a vote for public land, was a vote for fun, was a vote for our heritage, and was a vote for the jobs that the outdoor industry sustains across our state,” he said at an Outdoor Retailer conference.
Game wardens hunting for alligator thief: Game wardens are hunting for answers in a bizarre theft. An alligator was abducted from a rescue in far southeast Oklahoma. Authorities in Hochatown are trying to find the animal and those responsible. Tammy Virgin, the owner and operator of the Hochatown rescue and petting zoo, said Petrie the alligator used to live inside of a pool outside of the facility until someone stole him early Saturday morning. “Walked by Petrie’s pen to give him his morning treats, and Petrie wasn’t in there,” Virgin said. “For someone to just take him, it’s not fair.”
South Dakota tries to drum up nationwide interest in bighorn sheep hunting license: Legislators have given the go-ahead to change South Dakota’s bighorn sheep hunting license auction. The legislative Rules Review Committee approved on Monday state rule changes eliminating the Nov. 1 license application deadline and allowing the auction winner to hunt bighorn sheep in the Badlands hunting unit, a large swath of land surrounding the Badlands National Park. The legislators didn’t discuss the changes before approving them. The changes are part of a larger push at the Game, Fish and Parks Department to drum up nationwide interest in the license auction after the world record ram was bagged in Pennington County last year. GFP officials believe the auction bids could jump to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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