A few days ago I posted on North Carolina's stocking program and some details that came out of an article on Axios Raleigh. Axios down south is like what we see in Patch up these ways. It's hyperlocal reporting and news done by journalists, well some type of journalists. A lot of the time the content creators are stay at home parents, kids breaking in to the business, or old retired newsroom journalists trying to stay in the game. No disrespect to any one them. But when I worked for daily newspapers years ago we were reporters and photographers, both which are true journalists. Now these days everyone with a camera is a photographer and everyone with a keyboard in front of them a reporter.
In the days following the January 6th article by Mary Helen Moore, a reporter with Axios, several social media posts were made with concern that the headline, "Keeping North Carolina's Only Spawning Striped Bass Population Alive" was misleading. And it kinda was. One such outlet that addressed the issue was the Atlantic Saltwater Guides Association which they did on
their Guidepost blog and podcast. I read and listened and the first thing I came away with is how my ears had that Adam Nowalsky ring in them as I listened. In the introduction of the podcast they likened the article by Helen Moore as "summarized in a ChatGPT/AI style layout". In the end the ASGA rightfully cautioned that the headline and subsequent article, and the data that was published, could be misleading. The part that is in question was how, in a year, sampling of Roanoke River striped bass went from 97% genetically stocked fish down to 3% the next year. The assertion that the stocked fish just didn't survive is more believable than the chance that wild spawning fish "came back", miraculously, in a short year. They also caution the results as the numbers per haul weren't included in the reports and article. Like what was the sample size and how was the data collected.
So did Helen Moore do a poor job in reporting? Did she ChatGPT/ AI this thing? And who is Helen Moore anyway? Well she is a reporter, and has been for some time. She grew up
in North Carolina, went to school at UNC-Chapel Hill, and worked at several newspapers in Florida before heading to cover the Raleigh Durham area. In her bio from The News & Observer she lists fishing as one of her hobbies, so she at least knows what end of a fishing rod to hold. So I think we can call her a reporter, a journalist, who may have presented this topic in a poor light, or the source of her reporting mislead her, and then the reading public. And that happens from time to time.
But I think what gets me more then the fact that the article is misleading is the need for some to butcher people, their positions, events, and content, if they question or disagree with it. These days everyone has access to social media and a platform to voice their opinions. Everyone is an expert. All you have to do is watch your favorite social media platform blow up after some political or social movement type event that occurs in our country or around the world. Even though you're just on social media looking to stay in contact with family and friends your feed gets bombarded with peoples accounts and opinions. And sometimes it's too much, and incorrect. And really nobody cares. But people's true colors do come out, and that can be interesting.
So on this one I'll give Mary Helen Moore a break. Maybe there will be enough questions and pushback from all of the keyboard and airwave experts out there for her to offer a retraction, or motivate her to dig deeper on the topic of North Carolina, it's spawning striped bass, and what stocking does or doesn't do for a fishery, and do a follow-up article.
In the end, I think, the article was great. Why? It got me, and others, thinking about the Roanoke-Albermarle striped bass population and more so into the exploration that the possibility of stocking, either from a hatchery or "transplantation" of wild fish, might help save the striped bass. In these dire times it's going to take more then slot limits and No-Harvest closures. Sometimes presenting a topic and raising the questions can lead to productive thought and change, that's only if the keyboard experts don't get in your head and blow up any chance for productive discussions and alternatives. At times I've probably crossed that line. I just have to do better.