August 20, 2010 Cowlitz Bay Beach Seine
At 16:30 it was sunny, with a few clouds and a light breeze, high tide. The water temperature was 5ºC in the gravel at about half a meter's depth. Air temp was 15ºC.
First Seine
People carefully counted the creatures in the net so the following is fairly accurate. Many but not all of the fish were also measured. Yay!
Russel pointed out that in the past two years, we saw a lot of rockfish, and in fact, Cowlitz seemed to be a rockfish nursery. Seines for this year, though, have not yielded that many rockfish.
Greenling, Kelp: 1 @108
Gunnel, Penpoint: 3 @ 110, 114, 194 mm
Perch, Striped: 2 @73, 144
Red Irish Lord: 1 @140 mm
Salmon, Chinook: 52–Measurements below.
Salmon, Chum: 1 (possibly a summer chum from Hood Canal).
Sculpin, Great: 2 @ about 300 mm. These were thrown out of the net at once, because they are basically just hungry mouths.
Sculpin, Sharpnose: 13 @ 45, 48, 49, 46, 61, 62, 63, 68 mm
Sculpin, Tidepool (Oligocottus maculosus): 1 @ 91 mm
Smelt: 2 @150, 168 mm
Stickleback, Three-spine: 1 @71
Tubesnouts: 9 @ 74, 49, 80, 82, 83, 168 mm
Rock crab: 1@64mm
Shrimp, Coon-stripe: 27 @ 37, 47, 50, 52, 52, 53, measured from rostrum to tail.
Shrimp, Grass: 1 @ 20mm
Russel pointed out that in the past two years, we saw a lot of rockfish, and in fact, Cowlitz seemed to be a rockfish nursery. Seines for this year, though, have not yielded that many rockfish.
Greenling, Kelp: 1 @108
Gunnel, Penpoint: 3 @ 110, 114, 194 mm
Perch, Striped: 2 @73, 144
Red Irish Lord: 1 @140 mm
Salmon, Chinook: 52–Measurements below.
Salmon, Chum: 1 (possibly a summer chum from Hood Canal).
Sculpin, Great: 2 @ about 300 mm. These were thrown out of the net at once, because they are basically just hungry mouths.
Sculpin, Sharpnose: 13 @ 45, 48, 49, 46, 61, 62, 63, 68 mm
Sculpin, Tidepool (Oligocottus maculosus): 1 @ 91 mm
Smelt: 2 @150, 168 mm
Stickleback, Three-spine: 1 @71
Tubesnouts: 9 @ 74, 49, 80, 82, 83, 168 mm
Rock crab: 1@64mm
Shrimp, Coon-stripe: 27 @ 37, 47, 50, 52, 52, 53, measured from rostrum to tail.
Shrimp, Grass: 1 @ 20mm
Salmon Lengths
Salmon from the first pull ranged in length from 101 to 161 mm. In the 140 mm range, 6 of them had parasitic copepods, and a third of the total count had parasites.
Second Seine
Done at 18:40. This was to round out the wild salmon count (50 allowed) and to lavage some of the summer chum to see what they ate, and to find out if they really were from Hood Canal. It hasn't yet been documented that summer chum come to the San Juans.
Salmon: 12
Sand Lance: 1
Sculpin: 11
Sculpin, Great: 1 @ appx. 100 mm
Stickleback, Three-spine: 6
Tubesnouts: 22
Crab, kelp: 1 @ 8 mm
Crab, rock: 12, from 80 - 125 mm
Comb jelly: more than 1
Shrimp, coon-stripe: 32
Salmon: 12
Sand Lance: 1
Sculpin: 11
Sculpin, Great: 1 @ appx. 100 mm
Stickleback, Three-spine: 6
Tubesnouts: 22
Crab, kelp: 1 @ 8 mm
Crab, rock: 12, from 80 - 125 mm
Comb jelly: more than 1
Shrimp, coon-stripe: 32
Lavage
We lavaged 50 wild chinook and a few chum. Larger chinook had mostly eaten tubesnouts (interesting, since in previous weeks we saw more sand lance), and smaller fish and chum had mostly eaten crab megalopes and teeny weeny shrimp.
Photos
Glen got a small aquarium so he was able to show the fish to interested children (not the Chinook, which are endangered so we handle them as little as possible and release them as soon as possible). He took lots of photos.
Tow Technique
Bob attached a pulley to the cherry tree and used his truck to tow that side of the the net in.
Kelp Horn (please don't read this if you are goal-directed)
You cut the bulb open and buzz-blow into the other end.