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!

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.