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Environmental
Articles
Shortly
after Scott conducted his first tournament, he realized that his fledgling
group, as well as the entire bass industry, had a bleak future, considering
the polluted state of so many of America’s waterways at the time.
This inspired Scott to lead a two-pronged attack against water
pollution. In 1970 and 1971,
he filed more than 200 lawsuits against polluters large and small in Alabama,
Texas and Tennessee.
At the same time,
he launched a publicity campaign designed to awaken the public to the
threat and create a groundswell of support that would encourage the courts
to do the right thing. He appeared on NBC’s Today Show
and ABC’s Dick Cavett Show, and later on ABC’s 20/20.
In between, he was preaching the clean water gospel in literally
hundreds of smaller forums – local radio and TV shows, and local
newspapers across the nation.
The more he preached,
the more B.A.S.S. grew. This
willingness of the early members to support his environmental crusades
helped shape and fuel Scott’s continuing leadership role in this
arena.
Like many others,
Scott was disturbed by the dead fish resulting from early tournaments. Although he went to great lengths to make sure the bass were
used by worthy local charities, he knew this was not the answer. This led to his determination to release
alive the bass caught in his tournaments.
With great effort and at considerable expense, he instituted his
“Don’t Kill Your Catch” program.
In spite of many obstacles, including the skepticism of fishery
biologists and laymen alike, he made his Catch-And-Release program work
and become overwhelmingly embraced by non-tournament anglers as well.
The bass is now thought of first as a sport fish, not a food fish,
and for the past twenty years, more than 95 percent of B.A.S.S. tournament
bass have been released alive to thrill again.
With
lots of patience, and a great deal of help from Vice President George
Bush and cohorts from the Sportfishing Institute he obtained passage of
the Sport Fish Restoration Act, commonly known as the Wallop-Breaux Fund.
Since this bill
became law in July 1984, a small excise tax on fishing tackle and related
items has provided a fund which pours back literally hundreds of millions
of dollars divided among all fifty states for fishery restoration and
enhancement. If there is a twin legacy to “Catch and Release”
-- one that will truly epitomize Ray Scott’s contributions to sport
fishing in the decades ahead -- it will undoubtedly be his dogged determination
to pass the Sport Fish Restoration Act. No one who participated in this effort
denies the crucial role of Ray Scott over a seven-year period, a remarkable
display of patience by an impatient man.
Scott’s most
recent crusade concerns the use of aquatic herbicides in public waters.
He believes that Control, Protection, and Management (CPM)
is the safe and sensible approach to the harvest of native and exotic
water plants. Scott is encouraging the mechanical
harvest in a surgical manner, rather than chemical poison eradication
of vital food chain supported and enhanced by such vegetation. He shares with a growing number of others a concern for the
mixing of chemical poisons in waters that are often public drinking water
sources, and was instrumental in the founding of S.M.A.R.T. (Sensible
Management of Aquatic Resources Team).
This Texas organization is a coalition of varied environmental
groups who are working together toward the abolition of chemical herbicide
poisons that are being applied to public waters.
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