James River recovery an environmental success story

By REX SPRINGSTON
AP/Richmond Times-Dispatch

Published: May 13, 2008

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Willie Cannon first cast a line in the James River in 1956, but for him the good times are now.

“For ‘most 50 years, I’ve been fishing this river,” said Cannon, 70, of Richmond. “The water is cleaner than it’s ever been, and the fishing is much better. And I really enjoy eating the fish.”

As Cannon spoke, dozens of people — black, white, Hispanic, Asian, older people and worm-digging children — pulled in fish after fish, some landing three and four at a time, from the James at Ancarrow’s Landing in South Side.

Dozens more fished across the river just east of downtown’s skyscrapers, and still others fished from boats. Canada geese swam with their downy chicks, and purple wildflowers bloomed near the water.

In an increasingly popular rite of spring, thousands of people flock to the river from March to June to catch migrating shad, herring and other fish that bunch up at the rapids near downtown to spawn.

The popularity of city fishing seems to have hit a high this year, aided by good weather, word-of-mouth advertising and lots of fish produced by an increasingly healthy river.

“I think we had the biggest crowds this year,” said Gary Martel, fisheries director for the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The river drew about 500 people some days, he said.

It’s rare, particularly in the East, to find such high-caliber fishing in an urban area, Martel said. “You’ve got this extraordinary fishery right here in Richmond.”

A March-through-May survey by the game department in 2006 found that anglers spent 31,000 hours in just one small stretch — from the Mayo Bridge to Ancarrow’s Landing, 1¼ miles downriver. That’s the equivalent of nearly 8,000 people fishing for four hours each.

The anglers spend roughly $250,000 during the three months, Martel said.

One of city fishing’s biggest attractions is its proximity.

“I can be at home and in 20 minutes, I can be here,” Tracy Hunter of western Henrico County said as he put in his boat at Ancarrow’s.

Then there is the sheer abundance of fish. They include hickory shad, American shad, river herring and white perch. On top of that, such predators as 30-pound striped bass and 70-pound blue catfish feast on those smaller migrating fish.

“You’ve got kind of a feeding frenzy,” Martel said.

With anglers at the top of the food chain.

Hunter, 66, said he likes to fly-fish for hickory shad, a roughly 2-pound fish that puts up a fight. If you come across a large school, he said, you can catch them on “almost every cast.”

About a half-dozen fishing guides worked the James when Mike Ostrander entered the business in 2000. Today, Ostrander said, there are perhaps two dozen.

Thirty years ago, the James was virtually an open sewer — stinking, algae-covered and polluted with human waste and industrial chemicals. Tough federal and state pollution laws in the 1970s put the river on a comeback.

In recent years, the James has gotten even cleaner because of improvements to Richmond’s and Lynchburg’s old sewer systems and because of the state’s increasingly tight restrictions on releases from sewage plants and industries, said Bill Hayden, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Quality.

Still, the river has problems. The stretch from Richmond to Hopewell is tainted by fecal bacteria, caused by animal waste and occasional sewage overflows.

Thoroughly cooking fish will kill the bacteria, health experts say.

Other pollutants include toxic chemicals called PCBs, which are believed to cause cancer.

State health officials have issued various fish-eating advisories that boil down to: Don’t eat James River fish often, and don’t eat large fish, which accumulate more of the chemicals.

Cannon likes to smoke white perch, shad and herring so he can eat them two or three times a week all year. Fish and grits is a favorite.

“So far I’m not worried about none of that” pollution, Cannon said. “Whatever thing is going to happen to you is going to happen to you anyway.”

Fishing is a good way of eating inexpensively, Soeung Seng, 65, of Midlothian, said between casts of her rod at Ancarrow’s. “Anytime I want to eat, I take it out (of the freezer) and deep-fry it.”

Alisha Shabazz, 6, said she likes to catch fish but not eat them. “They stink when they come out of the water.”