River otters on the Funny River, Alaska

This posting has been a LONG time coming. I finally got my hands on the video clips from the underwater video recording system that I've been waiting for for 10 months :) Better late than never! And what a nice way to remember my truly amazing summer in Alaska, than to post a year later.

On May 27th, 2012 I took a long flight to Anchorage, and then a short one to the Kenai Peninsula. I won't go into all the details of my work and life up there, but please visit my Alaska entries to catch up.

If you don't want to read through all 35ish entries, you should at least check out my River otter caught on underwater camera entry, which will greatly fill you in on what I'm about to share.

I will briefly set it up:

I was hired through the Student Conservation Association (SCA) to work in the Kenai Fish and Wildlife Field Office for 3 months during summer 2012. I was considered a volunteer for the USFWS, but the SCA funded my travel, and I was provided a place to live for free. Which was a beautiful cabin on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge... #winning. But I worked 40 hours a week and did everything a traditional seasonal tech would do.

One of my tasks as a Fisheries Technician last summer, was to monitor a fish weir location on the Funny River. We had this weir set up, so that fish were funneled through a central spot in the river, and were forced in front of a video camera. This way we could see who, what, and when certain species were migrating.

I am a mammal-lover firstly, probably because I am one. I DO like fish now, especially the mighty Chinooks. But on this certain day, I was checking recorded video at the weir by myself. In our "office away from office", a weather port with a computer, I sat counting fish and reviewing video from days before. I finished what I was doing, and clicked back to the "live feed" just in time to see a river otter (Lontra canadensis) zip past the camera! My jaw dropped and I started muttering under my breath a mantra of "ohmigodohmigodohmigodohmigod" over and over. And back zipped the otter upstream! I was torn between sitting there and watching this otter on the screen -LIVE- or running 300 yards upstream to the weir to try and watch it with my eye balls! Curiosity won, and I ran. Apparently not fast enough though, because there was no otter to be seen.

This is my home-video I made...please note: I am NOT a videographer.

 

So, I gave up the hunt and went back to the Weatherport in hopes of watching the otter on the video. He left though, and just had this great memory left. But I remembered that the video was RECORDING! There was a digital copy of the otter!

 

I begged and pleaded with my boss to let me have the clips, and he very graciously agreed. I bought a jump drive for him to put them on, and I just got it in the mail. Better late than never, thanks Ken!



 

A couple of things to keep in mind while watching:

 

-This camera is very similar to a traditional camera trap. You can't buy this set up though in a store- you should consider it a "home brew" set up. The camera is a motion-sensing security camera you might hang from your garage.

 

-The box is a welded box with glass panels.

 

-The camera is submerged in filtered water, and stream water is allowed to pass through the channel, which from glass panel to the white wall in the back is ~6-7" wide. Just wide enough for large salmon or...an otter...to get through.

 

-The sandbag is blocking a gap at the bottom so no fish can sneak through unnoticed by the camera.

 

-Watch as the otter periodically goes up for air!

 

-A few times you can see him kick off the glass, which gives a great view of his cool feet.

 

Enjoy the antics of the river otter (which by the way, is the same species we have in New York!)...

Watching this video brings me right back to my summer on the Kenai Peninsula, and makes me very wistful to be back in my Alaskan home away from home...

Alyssa on Aqua Kids in Alaska!

Well, the time has come to share this hilarious video with the world!

Back in July 2012, I was interning through the Student Conservation Association for the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the Kenai Field Office.

That's a mouthful.

I lived in Alaska for 3 months. Yeah, I know...it was amazing!

A perk of the job, was that when a children's TV show came down to spend the day with us, I got to explain my internship on camera to be shared with children far and wide. It was a hectic day, hilarious, stressful, unnerving, but fun. To see the back story, check out my blog entry: Aqua Kids in Alaska!

That picture above is myself with the cast of Aqua Kids TV: Katie (pink), Clark (yellow), Rachael (orange), and Drew (blue). 

Skip ahead if you just want to see "my" part at ~12:28. But anything about the Funny River was pretty much my day to day job this summer. 

And if you can't view the video on my blog, click this link to get to Alaska 2012 Salmon Urbanization on YouTube.

Hope you enjoy it!

Aqua Kids in Alaska!

At the very end of July, I was afforded a really fun opportunity. A children's television cast and crew came to the Funny River Weir to film us and learn about the project! The Aqua Kids travel the country filming about awesome aquatic and marine research going on, and present in a way that's appealing to kids. I think their target demographic was the "tweens".

My boss, Ken, told me that morning that he wanted me to do the talking. I was flattered of course, because that meant he trusted me to represent the Service well, the office, him, and myself...and I that knew what I was talking about.

The day was, of course, overcast and threatening rain. I think the previous WEEK of weather was blue skies and sunny, so of course according to Murphy's Law, the day we'd have filming equipment in the field, it would be wet out. When we got to the location, we were briefed on the process, topics of questions, ways to stand, answer questions, "never look at the camera!", getting microphones hooked up, sound checks, lighting checks, etc. It was a bit intimidating, but really neat to watch.

Photo credit: Katrina Mueller/USFWS

Getting my microphone hooked up by George, the producer.

 

Photo credit: Katrina Mueller/USFWS

And the filming begins!

 

Photo credit: Katrina Mueller/USFWS

Showing the hosts, Rachael and Clark, a spawned-out dead female chinook salmon. It was DISGUSTING, but I was coerced into handling it for the show :)

 

Photo credit: Katrina Mueller/USFWS

Myself, Rachael, and Clark in the trap! I was walking them through how we take biological samples from the passing chinook salmon.

 

Photo credit: Forrest Hannan

Quiet on the set!

 

Then it was Ken's turn to film. He took care of explaning how the underwater video surveillance system works. It's his baby, it was only right!

 

Photo credit: Forrest Hannan

And finally, a picture of myself and the cast!

From left to right: Katie, Myself, Clark, Rachael, and Drew.

 

It was a really fun day, and I had a great time with them. I can't wait to see the episode when it airs later this fall...I'll be sure to share the air date if anyone is interested in viewing :)

River Otter Caught on Underwater Camera!

Quick post before bed: I have awesome video from the underwater fish counting gear, but the upload Gods are against me! I've literally been trying to post these video clips from my cabin, the grocery store, work, and now a hotel. As I sat reviewing the data one day, a river otter swam through the video shoot, and I watched it happen live. Totally amazing! I don't want to spoil it too much, I'll get the videos up eventually...I'll share the track pictures for now :)

Below is a zoomed and cropped version of the above...

Sorry, I had nothing to offer for scale. These tracks were on a little muddy sandbar, and when I tried to step onto it I sank up to my knee. This individual track above was probably about the size of a Chips-Ahoy! cookie. Bigger than an Oreo, but definitely smaller than a half moon. Like the comparison?

I haven't gotten any camera trap pictures yet...even though it was in PRIME location for these tracks. I'm so frustrated with this camera. I think I have a lemon. This is not ok, Cuddeback!

Anyway, I wanted to post a quick entry because I'll be cut off from computer access for the next 5-6 days...heading to Denali National Park for a loooong weekend!

Update: Bears

Last week I posted an entry entitled: The bad with the good... you should read that entry first before this one so you're caught up to speed.

Today I spoke with Alaska Wildlife State Trooper Potter in Fairbanks. He was the responding officer to the incident regarding the bear I watched be dispatched. I was eager to speak with him, for no other reason than to understand the laws surrounding this situation.

He told me that the owner of the hostel was in fact given a citation for taking a bear out of season. I don't really understand this, and I think this was a case of  "there's no law that fits this specifically, so we'll cram it under one that's close"...does that happen?

So the owner of the hostel took the bear out of season. But there's an open season on black bears in that region, YET, the owner didn't have a valid hunting license. The owner was claiming a Defense of Life and/or Property ("DLP")  shooting was necessary. But his unsecured garbage receptacles don't qualify him to use that claim. And if he HAD a a valid license, shooting that bear IN the dumpster would have been legal. Kind of- it could have been considered shooting over bait. There is also no law that requires bear proofing... and business/private owners can not be held accountable for allowing bears free access to food/garbage.

So, he's paying a $250 fine. Unless of course he wants to contest it, then he goes to court, and I get called to testify. I have that video I mentioned in the previous entry, so there's really no question about what happened. He'll probably just pay it off to make it go away.

He did not get to keep the bear. The skin and skull are going to the state, the skin will be tanned and auctioned off. The meat went probably to a local food bank.

So, I don't really feel like this bear killed legally or good cause. There's nothing left I can do, other than write my letter to the BBB and urge the owner of the hostel to rethink his food and garbage storage before something more tragic happens.

The last thing the officer told me: "There are a gazillion [yes he said gazillion] black bears in Alaska, so try not to worry about it."

Why am I having such a hard time with this?

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On a better note, I FINALLY got big-sexy-Alaskan-mega-fauna on my Cuddeback Attack camera trap. This camera has been aggravating me all summer with it's lack of performance...but it FINALLY caught what I was looking for at the Funny River Weir:

That's a grizzly bear, folks! (Ursus arctos)

To the left of it is the trap that I work in often. The picture is really washed out because the bear is so close to the camera. The Attack flashes really bright, so there is some over exposure...but still awesome!

Below is a picture in the day time...

And that's all she wrote for today. Next entry will be the continuing story of critters in Denali!

Warning: Bears

Let me start by telling you all (unfortunately) that I have not had an experience with a grizzly or black bear yet here. I haven't even seen one from a distance! I'm torn between wanting one and not...as grizzlies are something I'm not used to. I feel quite comfortable and confident roaming the woods in NY, and if I should come across a black bear, we'll part our seperate ways amicably.


Grizzlies, I learned in my "Bear Aware" training, are ruthless. They are quick to defend territory, young, prime feeding spots, and will also actively hunt you. Also, the cherry on top, is that they can run up to 35mph so I've heard. We're required to take a 12 gauge shotgun out with us when working in the field, and we are only to shoot to kill- no warning shots.



So, that being said I wanted to share just a couple of pictures of things I've seen around here that confirms the bears are around.

Isn't this pin cool? I got it for completing the course.

Fun fact: Alaska is the only state that is home to all 3 North American bears. Grizzly (same as brown and Kodiak bears), black bears, and the largest: polar bears!

First, this is something that I always carry on me. I think it's more of a mental health thing than actually a life-saver...but it brings peace of mind. The shotgun is not always handy...

The second time I was out at the Funny River Weir, I noticed this salmon (probably a chinook/king) that was not there the night before. It's head was eaten off...which is common for bears (among other species) to do when there is an abundance of food. They can be picky, because the brain is SO protein rich. I don't know who did this...but I would not be surprised if it was a bear.

And this lovely stuff is grizzly scat. It's old, probably from last fall...and really just hair/bones that couldn't get digested. This is literally 2 steps out of the "office" out there at the weir, which is just a canvas platform tent. So, the grizzlies are around.

This is a short entry, I know, but I wanted to share this part of my job in more detail. It's kind of scary, and it's always in the back of my mind...

X does NOT mark the spot...

This post is going to be about mammals- I feel like I've been neglecting them since I wrote about Moose-stang Sally a few weeks ago.

This week I've found several sets of tracks in amazing substrate that have to be shared.

The first was at the Funny River Weir, that I've recently written about. Apparently the Kenai Peninsula had records snow fall amounts this past winter, and because it's warming up- all of the snow pack is still melting up in the mountains and rushing down stream to where I live. The rivers are swollen, and last week they were raging. Because of this, right next to the weir, a bit of sand and silt built up, kind of making a little beach. Several days ago I went to check water levels, and noticed these tracks:

...and my mind began to spin.

I instantly thought a member of the weasel family, the Mustelids. And here's why:

• Habitat: it's a riverine system that is totally resource rich. Large sized fish, and alot of them, travel this waterway around the clock, and will for the next 2 months. "Resource rich" if you will...
• Secondly: let's count toes. Maybe you can't see in this picture, but there's 5 on front and 5 on back. All weasels (including fisher, marten, long-tailed/short-tailed/least weasels, otters, mink...to name some) have 5/5 toes. Other critters have the 5/5 toes as well, such as muskrat, skunks, woodchucks...but the latter 2 don't live here! And the muskrat tracks just don't fit.

Does anyone else suffer from "sensationalitis"? It's a condition I suffer: when ever I get a blurry trail cam pic, or smudgy track, or some other kind of animal sign...I pick the coolest animal it could be, then say it is so. I was convinced that this was a river otter track. It just seemed so big to me, but as always, the voice of reason told me to "think mink".

That bobby pin is exactly 5 cm long, and it was the only thing I had to use for scale. According to the little tracking book I'm using (Track Finder by Dorcas Miller), mink tracks fall below that. Otter are almost double that in length. SO, the voice of reason is correct again: mink (Mustela vison).

I took this picture of a mink, not on the Funny River, but on the Kenai River several weeks ago. They are here!

The next set of tracks I have to share are a brand spanking new find for me. Several days ago, I was out with Jim, a biology technician out of the office I'm interning at. He is currently working on his Masters degree, and is tracking the movements of fish through the Anchor River here on the peninsula. At one of the sites he had to check, we had to take an ATV back into the woods. I rode on the back rack, as we went in and we hit a low spot that had recently held alot of water. At this point, it was a nice thick, smooth mud. This is what I saw.

The beautiful overstep walk of a lynx (Lynx canadensis)!

As soon as I saw it, after the ATV tracks were made, flashes of cougar, gray wolf, bobcat, dog, lynx were flashing through my mind. In this case, I was underwhelming myself. Trying to talk myself of the edge of a big carnivore. I've NEVER come across a track like this in NY. I have had a fair experience of black bear tracks now, but this was definitely not bear.

These were my initial observations: 1) the tracks are so round, 2) no X (I'll explain this later), 3) edges of pads were blurry, not totally crisp, 4) LARGE, 5) I felt that this animal was walking, as opposed to trotting or running, and 6) no nails!

For ease of explanation, when I say "cat" I mean generally all cats domestic and otherwise. When I say "dog", I mean domestic and otherwise. I'm referring to the family.

1. So cats have round tracks, and dogs have oval tracks: generally. Of course there's the oddball out there that defies this rule, and of course the substrate (or what they're leaving tracks in) can effect this too.

2. There was no "X". When identifying a cat or dog track, an easy way to decipher the difference is by laying an X with sticks, or pencils over the track. If the sticks can lay comfortable through toe pads and around the metacarpal (big pad), then it's a dog. Cat tracks won't allow a clean passage between toes. The "X" will cut into the metacarpal pad. For more succinct information, see Cat Track Fever II.

3. Edges of the pads were blurry! Why? Because lynx have incredibly furry feet that act as snowshoes in deep snow.

Photo credit: Natural Resource Research Institute at the University of Minnesota

So if you have a pet cat, imagine what their toes look like. Very clean and if you have seen wet tracks on a hard surface, you can definitely see edges of the pads.

4. Lynx tracks are big. They are a big cat, so of course they'll have big paws to support and distribute their weight. Width can be up to 10.8cm and length 14.3cm (Mammal Tracks & Sign by Mark Elbroch). As you can see below, this is a nice sized track.

The spread between by thumb and tip of my index finger is just about 10cm, to give you a frame of reference. Can you see the "furry-ness"??

5. Gait: I've done a lot of thinking about the movements of animals for the past couple of years. Tracking, as many of you may know, is such a cool way to study wild animals, even if we can't watch them. They tell us so much about their habits, movements, and how fast they're moving. Because I'm not very well versed in tracking, I'm going to tell you how I came to the conclusion that this is an overstep walk. Walking because the tracks aren't spread way out, and the trail is wide. When animals, and even us, move fast, our strides lengthen and the width between our paws or feet narrows. Then for the overstep part- I compared to various pictures. I have nowhere NEAR enough experience being able to tell lefts, rights, rears, fronts by myself. If I had time to really study the tracks with a bit of positive reinforcement over my shoulder, I may have been able to come up with all of that. It's tough though. I'm just pleased for now that I came up with a species (and it was confirmed by Jim), and that I knew relatively how fast the animal was moving.

6. Cats generally do not show their nails when they are moving on flat ground. Their claws are retractable and therefore rarely show.

I feel like I'm rambling a little bit...so I'll conclude with the rest of my kick-ass pictures!

How's this for a cool picture? I believe those are again mink tracks, running perpendicularly to the lynx. Also, the pebbled appearance of the mud is from rain the night before. These tracks (both sets) fell since the rainfall...very, very fresh!

And that's all I got! I wish I had been able to talk more about the minutia of tracks, I'm just not there yet though. For now, I'll continue looking on the ground for all the clues left behind...and then sharing them with all of you!

Salmonid Sampling: Round #1

Today I finally got to handle fish! This is what I love most about the field: hands on, up close and personal with the animals, that allows me appreciation of the species. That's what zoos are all about really, bringing exotic and native wild animals into your community to offer you the chance to fall in love with them and perhaps help conservation efforts. Except I'm going into THEIR community and learning about them.

Last night Jeff, my supervisor, went to the Funny River where the weir is set up, click that link for the pre-story. He closed the front of the trap, upstream, and then closed the fike (see below).

The fike allows fish to swim in, but makes it difficult for them to swim back out.

The black plastic are called "cod fingers". Don't know why, but there's some fun trivia for you!

It reminded me of the Montezuma Confusion Traps that we saw when duck banding this spring with the USFWS on Cayuga Lake.

All of those fingers do close, they just got bumped into a bit while I was in there...wrangling.








So Jeff and I climbed in, he handed me this HUGE net and said...go for it.

This is Jeff, but you can see how small inside the trap is, and how big that net is. I'll let you in on a secret too: there are 34 large chinook salmon in there with us.

Once a fish is in the net, it's "FISH ON" as Jeremy Wade (River Monsters) would say. It's like a bull in a china shop, a bucking bronco, a tasmanian devil....the fish flip out and try to get out of the net, and meanwhile you're crashing around trying to fight the current, tripping over the other fish, and trying to get the fish turned around into the cradle.

So here I am with a chinook. The cradle is to the left, and that's where we hold the fish while processing it. It keeps them still, confined, and in the water.

Here's the cradle in use. Along my side, on the outside is a ruler that allows us to take 2 measurements: snout to fork in the tail, and mid-eye to fork in the tail.

Also, I have to comment on what I'm wearing. It's a dry suit, but feels like a huge zip-loc bag, and looks like a space suit with rubberbands around the wrists and neck. It's kind of uncomfortable, but I much prefer it to the 45*F water!

After measuring, we'd take a scale sample. The ideal spot is between the posterior of the dorsal fin, to the posterior of the anal fins, and above the lateral line. These scales form first, and are the "oldest" on the fish, so we pulled from here.

The scales were then placed on this "gum card" that gets sticky with water activation. Four scales/fish were taken, starting at #1 and running to 11, 21, 31. The second fish gets #2, 12, 22, 32...and so on. It's backwards, and I don't understand why it's setup this way...BUT that's the way it goes.

Afterwards, the cards are dried and pressed flat and eventually someone who has been trained, makes an acetate copy of it (kind of like using superglue when lifting finger prints..it makes the print/scale ridges rigid and more permanent), then the scales are aged.

Finally, when all data is collected, the fish is lifted in the cradle out of the trap and released back into the stream.

It was a great day! The chinook are really running now, I think we processed 34 fish today...which is remarkable. Last week this time we had MAYBE 2-3 fish coming through the weir in a 24 hour period. The trap was only set for 12 hours. This fish above was 100cm long, and about 50#. He was the last fish I caught...and it was like netting Jaws. He was a big boy!

The Funny River Weir Project

Since I arrived in Alaska almost 3 weeks ago, all I've been posting are pictures and stories of what I've been up to in my off time. I finally this week have begun to actually WORK! I had to sit through alot of orientation and policy talk, and training workshops. This past weekend I worked a festival here in the town of Soldotna that celebrated the mighty Kenai River. The Kenai is physically and economically the center of this peninsula. It provides revenue from tourists and fish as food for the local residents year round.

The movements and numbers of fish traveling the Kenai have been closely documented by the Fish and Wildlife Field Office biologists. The fish are such an important part of Alaska's economy, that big money is spent to learn about their habits so that practical laws and regulations can be put into action. It's called a "sustainable wild fishery".

There are multiple monitoring projects going on out of the office I work for, probably 2/3 of them are considered "remote". Only access is by float plane, or helicopter if water is too low to land on. The helicopter will literally drop a sling load on an exposed gravel bar, drop the staff off, and then they'll have to hike to their field camp and drive back with the boat.  I will be working on local projects, and to give you a taste of what that is, I'm going to explain what a weir is and how it works!

The Funny River, no idea where that name came from, is a tributary of the Kenai River. It's accessible to us, the Fish and Wildlife Service, by a private land owner. This man "homesteaded" his property...meaning back in the 50's when AK was becoming a state, he claimed his chunk of land and said it was his. It's a great cooperative project between a private citizen and a government agency.

This is what the Funny River weir looks like:

It's basically a PVC pipe fence that blocks fish from freely swimming upstream, while allowing water through. It angles at about 45* and is anchored upstream by sandbags. In the center, if you can make it out, is a tunnel that fish are channeled into. The big cage is a trap that is open at the time of this picture, but can be closed so that fish can be easily captured to take biological samples and measurements, and then released. And finally beyond that, which you can't see, at the base of the pole is the video box.

A closer look at the weir- daily I will be coming to this location and wading hip deep in the river to rake off the debris that gets caught up on the weir. This was taken on Wednesday the 13th, and today the 14th I couldn't see the PVC. We had about a day and a half of steady rain and the river rose a foot. It was pretty scary this morning wading out into that water!

The trap for fish. Above the chute is the door that slides down to close it.

Sideview of the trap. Upstream is to the left, and downstream is to the right.

Looking downstream at the weir.

This is the housing of the video equipment. In years past, and maybe even on some of the weirs that are in operation now, someone would have to sit on top of the trap and watch as fish passed below. They would have a thing in their lap that they'd tick on to keep track of species and sex of passing fish. This was done from above, in all weather, and whether or not fish were passing. The team has this ingenious system set up of a video surveillance system. It's like camera trapping on speed! The camera is a regular security camera that you could buy for your house, and it's motion sensored. There is a water proof housing and light system that it's all rigged up with to keep it safe and well lit. It records if something (fish, debris, beaver, etc) swim upstream under the weir, through the tunnel, through the trap, and through the video box. The fish have to go this route, all other paths are blocked to get up stream. THEN, in the software you can search by day and then by hour for a "blip" in the recording, and then you view it from the comfort of your office or whereever.

This is MY office for the summer :) It's a "weatherport", basically just a heavy plastic tent up on a platform. All the video recording equipment is housed here...and after I check the weir for any debris or faults, I sit in here and review the tapes. I'm able to fast forward, pause, and consult my Pacific Salmon ID cheat sheet :)

This is what the video software looks like...that gray area is a live view of the river. Nothing is swimming through at this moment, and the water is REALLY turbid due to recent rain events and warm of the glaciers (melt water). When we get some good footage I'll try to post some. It's really cool!

The species that are being observed are:

-Chinook (King) salmon

(Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)

-Chum (Dog) salmon

(Oncorhynchus keta)

-Pink (Humpy) salmon

(Oncorhynchus gorbuscha)

-Steelhead/Rainbow trout

(Oncorhynchus mykiss)

-Coho (Silver) salmon

(Oncorhynchus kisutch)

-Sockeye (Red) salmon

(Oncorhynchus nerka)

-Dolly Varden

(Salvelinus malma)

Incidentals could include:

-Northern pike (BAD!)

-Pacific lamprey

-Atlantic salmon (BAD!)

-Mink

-Beaver

-Otter

I'll be posting more about this all summer, as well as other projects I am involved with. Tomorrow I'm going to an elementary school and doing fish dissections with k-4 on pink salmon! It should be a good time.