Good anglers are concerned about the fish’s primary need-WATER. You probably don’t think much about water even though you use it everyday. Water is very important because there’s nothing else like it in the world. Fish are not the only animals that could not live without it. We couldn’t live without it and can’t afford to take it for granted.
There is a lot of water. It covers about 70 percent of the earth, but only about three percent of it is fresh water. Most of the fresh water, about 75 percent, is in the form of ice. In fact, the frozen areas of the world have as much fresh water as all the world’s rivers will carry for the next 1,000 years.
The demand for unpolluted fresh water is increasing because the earth’s population is increasing. How much water does the average person use? Here are some answers:
- In the home, each person uses about 70 gallons of water a day.
- It takes three gallons to flush a toilet.
- It takes 15 to 30 gallons to take a bath.
- It takes five gallons for a one-minute shower.
- It takes ten gallons to wash dishes.
This is a lot of water, but more than half of the water used in the United States is used by industries. For example, it takes 250 tons of water to make a ton of newspaper and ten gallons to produce one gallon of gasoline. You can see why it is important to conserve water.
Sharing Waters
As you have seen, anglers and boaters are not the only ones who use bodies of water and have an effect on fish populations. Industries and power plants use large amounts of water. Communities need water for drinking. Farmers use it to water their crops and livestock. Barges and ships use waterways to bring products to market. Water is also used for waste disposal.
The demands for water use can cause conflicts among those using our water resources. The results are not always good for the fish and not everyone is concerned with fish.
An occasional conflict arises when people want to dam a river for irrigation, for controlling floods, or for the production of electricity. Dams create lakes or reservoirs that are habitat for fish such as largemouth bass and crappie. However, the reservoir destroys several miles of river that might have been prime habitat for trout, smallmouth or rock bass.
Water is too valuable to waste. With so much demand for our water it is important that each of us do our part to conserve it.
How You Can Conserve Water
- Reducing water use in the kitchen and bathroom.
- Shutting the water off between rinsing dishes or brushing our teeth.
- Turning the water on only when are actually using it.
- Taking showers since they use less water than baths.
- Using flow-restricting devices on shower heads.
- Fixing leaky faucets.
- Running only full loads of clothes in the washer. Placing a plastic bottle or brick in the water tank of the toilet so that it will use less water for each flushing.
- Not using water for watering lawns or washing cars during times of water shortage.