May 14, 2008 Beach Seine with Kurt Fresh · 19 May 2008, 07:44 by Julie Loyd
Kurt intended to sample all around our island and on the other side of Presidents’ Channel as well, but there wasn’t enough time. They ended up sampling Cowlitz, Henderson’s, and in front of the Appel’s, and possibly one more beach. I was gone during the middle of the day.
Russel Barsh and Audrey, a fish biologist for Wild Fish, came too.
At Cowlitz, the net pulled up oodles of chum, shiner perch, and striped perch. There were some fish deaths at the beginning, but by the end of the day, people’s technique had improved considerably and there was practically no mortality. Audrey pickled some of the chum stomachs for later inspection by our plankton team.
Here are the things that, in my opinion, helped make the day successful:
1. We chose beaches that were easily accessible by road as well as water.
2. We had equipment lists to help us decide what to bring.
3. The net pulling crews understood who to listen to and followed instructions to pull in the net, concentrate the fish, and pour them into a holding bucket with a minimum of fuss and cross-purposes. Other people stayed clear.
4. Audrey worked VERY quickly when handling juvenile chinook. She measured the fish and clipped the fin in one smooth motion, held them up for Kurt to wand them with a magnetic sensor to see if they’d been tagged, and then had the tube up their throat, water squirted in, and the stomach contents in a filter. She had them in the recovery tank in under a minute. I think it might help future citizen scientist lavage teams to watch a video of how she did it and to perform some dissections on fish to see where the stomach is and how big it is.
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