By Susan DeGrane
Ship ballast has also been known to carry strains of cholera and cryptosporidium, a microbial parasite that can be fatal to humans and that’s thought to have caused 104 deaths in Milwaukee.
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Only about 35 fishermen, bait-shop owners, and a few concerned citizens are at today’s rally, but Perch America is gaining strength, with 300 members in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Many of the Chicagoans and Hoosiers are ironworkers, pipe fitters, or construction workers.
Most of the fishermen gathered today on this patch of sunny sidewalk stand and talk. A few have brought patio chairs and coolers filled with pop and watermelon.
“The old-timers don’t buy licenses anymore,” says Mike Evano, owner of Lakeside Sports, a Hammond, Indiana, bait store that in past years issued more than 70,000 fishing licenses annually. “They don’t buy the licenses because they don’t fish for anything but perch–and the perch are gone. There was a time when you caught so many perch you got tired of it. You could put a pearl-colored button on and catch a herring. Somebody catches a herring now they say, What’s this? People once said, There’s so many of them, we’ll never catch all of them.
Landmichl wears his shirts over his bib overalls. Today the front of his shirt features the words “Proud to be” over a picture of the American flag. The back of the shirt has a picture of men in combat uniform and the words “All gave some….Some gave all.”
“As if we aren’t?” says one of the south-siders.
