Charleston Paddlesports Festival

Pick up a copy of Adventure Kayak and chat with publisher Scott MacGregor and cameraman/film festival coordinator Dan Caldwell at the East Coast Paddlesports and Outdoor Festival this weekend. Scott and Dan will be filming the festival action, talking to participants and coordinators, and screening the 2013 Reel Paddling Film Festival World Tour. Friday through Sunday, take part in a huge variety of on- and off-water sessions, from rigging your kayak for fishing, to hand rolling and other tricks with Greenland-style guru, Dubside. Check out the schedule here, and make your way to South Carolina this weekend.

Backroads Banderdinker Returns to Wisconsin

Hayward, Wisconsin, will hold the annual Backroads Banderdinker festival for charity June 8, 2013, on Nelson Lake. Featuring a five-mile loop around Big Island, the event is appropriate for paddlers of all ages and skill levels. The grassroots festival will raise funds for the local Boy Scouts troop, amateur sports leagues and the area Lion’s Club, as well as help promote the Hayward region’s 125 miles of rivers and 200 lakes. Registration for the festival is now available online. 

Asian Carp Reach Great Lakes

At least some Asian carp probably have found their way into the Great Lakes, but there’s still time to stop the invaders from becoming established and unraveling food chains, according to a scientific report released earlier this month.

“I would say there’s at least some evidence for Asian carp being present in southern Lake Michigan,” Christopher Jerde of the University of Notre Dame, the lead author, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “”The question is how many. We can be cautiously optimistic … that we’re not at the point where they’ll start reproducing, spreading further and doing serious damage.”

The paper summarizes findings by Jerde and other scientists from Notre Dame, The Nature Conservancy and Central Michigan University during two years of searching the Great Lakes basin for Asian carp. The fish have migrated northward in the Mississippi River and many tributaries since escaping from Deep South ponds in the 1970s. Scientists fear they will out-compete prized sport and commercial species. Via Yahoo! News.