July 27, 2014 Cowlitz Bay Seine, first pull
The Seine started several minutes after 4:00 PM. Weather data was collected online at 3:48: Clear, 72.6º; Wind from N, gusts 4.0 mph; Pressure 30.13; Visibility 9 mi; Dew Point 58º, Humidity 60%; UV 7 out of 12, Pollen 3.5 out of 12. Water temperature 51.1º. Low tide was at 12:08 PM, at -.6 feet; high tide was predicted for 7:42 PM at 8.3 feet.
To someone who grew up in Los Angeles, a temperature of 72º sounds laughably mild. For the PNW, however, it feels overwhelmingly hot. The water was hot. The sand was hot. The air was hot. The trees hung in the purportedly 4 mph breeze as though they had forgotten how to breathe. We waited to start the seine because first of all, we didn't want to subject the fish to the heat in the shallows, and second of all, nobody wanted to move.
I am experimenting with starting a long-term searchable database, and so the fish list reads more awkwardly than usual because I want to standardize the names. The database itself will be months in the making so don't hold your breath please.
11 Perch, Shiner
9 Perch, Striped
2 Sculpin, Silverspot
4 Sculpin, Staghorn
1 Sculpin, Great
26 Stickleback, Three-spined
To someone who grew up in Los Angeles, a temperature of 72º sounds laughably mild. For the PNW, however, it feels overwhelmingly hot. The water was hot. The sand was hot. The air was hot. The trees hung in the purportedly 4 mph breeze as though they had forgotten how to breathe. We waited to start the seine because first of all, we didn't want to subject the fish to the heat in the shallows, and second of all, nobody wanted to move.
I am experimenting with starting a long-term searchable database, and so the fish list reads more awkwardly than usual because I want to standardize the names. The database itself will be months in the making so don't hold your breath please.
11 Perch, Shiner
9 Perch, Striped
2 Sculpin, Silverspot
4 Sculpin, Staghorn
1 Sculpin, Great
26 Stickleback, Three-spined
The boat went off with Kwiaht's interns to do a plankton tow, and when it came back we did a second seine at around 6:45. This time, there were chinook, which is what we were hoping for.
2 Greenling, White-spotted
2 Gunnel, Penpoint
3 Gunnel, Saddleback
1 Herring
41 Perch, Shiner
1 Perch, Striped
59 Salmon, Chum
23 Salmon, Pink
22 Salmon, Chinook,
1 Sculpin, Great
3 Sculpin, Silverspot
11 Sculpin, Staghorn (In the photo below, a small Staghorn is biting Madrona's thumb. This is why we try to remove sculpins from the general melée as soon as we see them. They are basically mouths with tails to propel them.)
1 Tubesnout
30 Stickleback, Three-spined
We lavaged the 22 Chinook. Many had eaten euphausids (krill), midges, or cod. Interestingly, we did not catch any cod in either of the seines. To see the full images below, click once.
July 11, 2014 Cowlitz Bay Seine
The Seine started a few minutes after 4:00. Weather data was collected online at 2:00: Clear 74.1 °F; Wind from NNE ; Gusts 4.0 mph; Today’s forecast High 65 | Low 58 °F; 0% Chance of Precip. Yesterday’s High 74.7 | Low 58.4 °F; Waxing Gibbous moon,99% visible; Pressure 29.96 in; Visibility 8.0 miles; Clouds Clear; Dew Point 59 °F; Humidity 59%; UV 10 out of 12; Pollen 4.70 out of 12.
3 Penpoint Gunnels
3 Shiner Perch
15 Striped Perch
21 wild Chinook Salmon, 9 hatchery Chinook
3 Chum Salmon
2 Great Sculpins
1 Silverspot Sculpins
6 Staghorn Sculpins
2 Three-spined Sticklebacks
6 Helmet Crabs
1 Coonstripe Shrimp
2 other kinds of shrimp
Somebody asked if I thought the count was accurate.
How do we count the fish, anyway? This is an inclusive venture, with anyone who feels like participating joining in, including children. Many people have favorite fish that they can always accurately identify. Sometimes helpful fish biologists show up. Russel and Madrona can not only identify most fish, but are willing to go into detail as to what makes a Staghorn Sculpin different from a Great Sculpin, for example, or why a pipefish can be identified by gender. As a result, all but the most reckless fish counters (and we do get those people, occasionally) are probably identifying their fish accurately. However, there is another way things can get messed up, which is that people shout out the number of fish they've ID'd. The person with the clipboard is sometimes bombarded with data. Usually there is time to ask for clarification, but sometimes not. Finally, I am not always able to read the tallies back at my desk, especially if hundreds of fish have been counted and the tallies get crowded off into corners of the data sheet with little arrows pointing to what kind of fish they pertain to. Since I attend all of the events, I usually know which of the fish came in large numbers and so I can usually collate the data correctly.
So, if you are worried about how accurate the count is, my assessment is that you can be certain that there were AT LEAST as many fish of each kind as have been listed. You can be 100% certain that the genus is correct and fairly certain that the species is correct. In other words, if there was a huge school of mixed shiner and striped perch (which does happen), and I report 300 Shiner Perch and 150 Striped Perch, you can be certain that there were at least 450 perch, but the exact breakdown of which were shiners and which were striped is less likely to be totally accurate. The accuracy is higher than you might think, because expert fish identifiers count faster than raw beginners. Beginners spend most of their time marveling at the fish, as well they should.
We lavaged 21 wild Chinook, who ranged in size from about 90 mm to 130 mm. Most of them had eaten fish. A few had bite marks on them, some partially healed. Indeed, we watched an otter cruising the bay just before we pulled the net in.
3 Penpoint Gunnels
3 Shiner Perch
15 Striped Perch
21 wild Chinook Salmon, 9 hatchery Chinook
3 Chum Salmon
2 Great Sculpins
1 Silverspot Sculpins
6 Staghorn Sculpins
2 Three-spined Sticklebacks
6 Helmet Crabs
1 Coonstripe Shrimp
2 other kinds of shrimp
Somebody asked if I thought the count was accurate.
How do we count the fish, anyway? This is an inclusive venture, with anyone who feels like participating joining in, including children. Many people have favorite fish that they can always accurately identify. Sometimes helpful fish biologists show up. Russel and Madrona can not only identify most fish, but are willing to go into detail as to what makes a Staghorn Sculpin different from a Great Sculpin, for example, or why a pipefish can be identified by gender. As a result, all but the most reckless fish counters (and we do get those people, occasionally) are probably identifying their fish accurately. However, there is another way things can get messed up, which is that people shout out the number of fish they've ID'd. The person with the clipboard is sometimes bombarded with data. Usually there is time to ask for clarification, but sometimes not. Finally, I am not always able to read the tallies back at my desk, especially if hundreds of fish have been counted and the tallies get crowded off into corners of the data sheet with little arrows pointing to what kind of fish they pertain to. Since I attend all of the events, I usually know which of the fish came in large numbers and so I can usually collate the data correctly.
So, if you are worried about how accurate the count is, my assessment is that you can be certain that there were AT LEAST as many fish of each kind as have been listed. You can be 100% certain that the genus is correct and fairly certain that the species is correct. In other words, if there was a huge school of mixed shiner and striped perch (which does happen), and I report 300 Shiner Perch and 150 Striped Perch, you can be certain that there were at least 450 perch, but the exact breakdown of which were shiners and which were striped is less likely to be totally accurate. The accuracy is higher than you might think, because expert fish identifiers count faster than raw beginners. Beginners spend most of their time marveling at the fish, as well they should.
We lavaged 21 wild Chinook, who ranged in size from about 90 mm to 130 mm. Most of them had eaten fish. A few had bite marks on them, some partially healed. Indeed, we watched an otter cruising the bay just before we pulled the net in.