June 28, 2015 Cowlitz Bay, two seines, 4:45 pm and 5:25 pm
At 3:30 it was 72ºF, wind from NNW with 10 knot gusts, overcast with occasional spits of rain (not enough to dampen the ground). High 78, low 60º. The sun rose at 5:11 and set at 9:18; the moon is a waxing gibbous.
First pull, 4:45:
White-spotted Greenling 0 Penpoint Gunnel 0 Herring 20 Striped Perch 2 Pipefish, 1 male, 1 female (photo) 2 Chum Salmon 0 Sand Lance 1 Buffalo Sculpin (photos) 1 Staghorn Sculpin 5 Stickleback (photo) 6 Tubesnout 0 Helmet Crab 1 Kelp Crab (photo) 1 Rock Crab 3 Graceful Crab 2 Coonstripe Shrimp 123 Gooseberry Jellies 0 |
Second pull, 5:25
3 White-spotted Greenling 3 Penpoint Gunnel 350 Herring 0 Striped Perch 2 Pipefish 1 Chum Salmon 0 Sand Lance 0 Buffalo Sculpin 3 Staghorn Sculpin 1 Stickleback 1 Tubesnout 1 Helmet Crab 0 Kelp Crab 0 Rock Crab 1 Graceful Crab 92 Coonstripe Shrimp, all quite small 5 Gooseberry Jellies (comb jellies) |
It is charming to see the pull results side by side, isn't it? You will notice that, while we got different numbers for the two pulls, the species were more or less the same, more or less. Many things could account for the differences. For one thing, it was slack tide, but there is always some change in the works. Fifty minutes between pulls is 50 minutes where conditions have been continually changing. Juveniles, which are mostly what we find, often cluster in the shallows because larger predator species are slightly handicapped with less of a 3-D attack sphere to work with, plus (I haven't heard this anywhere, but I am guessing), it must be easier to find each other and school up in the shallows than out in the random everywhere of the open ocean. A slight change in where they are might mean that our net doesn't locate them. As always, we can conclude that whatever we see, does exist, but if we do not see it, we can't say if it's there or not.
You are probably asking yourself, "but what about the chinook?" We asked that too. We found two of them (plus one got away–we had a lot of help from some VERY enthusiastic preschoolers), both at 90mm. Lavage revealed that one had eaten mostly midges, and the other mostly copepods. From the salmon's point of view, this is bad news. They ought to be finding sand lance or herring this time of year. Perhaps there were so few salmon to be caught because they are not able to find enough prey to survive here. Or, as discussed in the above paragraph, perhaps the bay is oodling with them but we didn't catch them. That afternoon, though, we did not see any jumpers, so probably there really were very few juveniles in our bay at the time.
A longhorned wood borer beetle (fam. Cerambycidae) was confused and lost out on one of the buoys, and was sacrificed in the name of a County-wide insect collection.
There was also pie.
You are probably asking yourself, "but what about the chinook?" We asked that too. We found two of them (plus one got away–we had a lot of help from some VERY enthusiastic preschoolers), both at 90mm. Lavage revealed that one had eaten mostly midges, and the other mostly copepods. From the salmon's point of view, this is bad news. They ought to be finding sand lance or herring this time of year. Perhaps there were so few salmon to be caught because they are not able to find enough prey to survive here. Or, as discussed in the above paragraph, perhaps the bay is oodling with them but we didn't catch them. That afternoon, though, we did not see any jumpers, so probably there really were very few juveniles in our bay at the time.
A longhorned wood borer beetle (fam. Cerambycidae) was confused and lost out on one of the buoys, and was sacrificed in the name of a County-wide insect collection.
There was also pie.
June 14, 2015 Cowlitz Bay, first of two seines, 4:30 pm, second at 6:30
At 3:30, it was 66ºF, wind from the North at 6 knots, no rain, clear skies. The sun rose at 5:08 and set at 9:16, the moon is a waxing crescent.
At 4:30 we set the net. There were only 18 Chinook so we did another pull two hours later, and caught another 18 plus a couple of re-catches.
First pull, 4:30:
1 White-spotted greenling, 12"
5 Penpoint Gunnels, 1 of them quite teeny-tiny
3 Herring
15 Striped Perch
18 Chinook Salmon, 1 hatchery
1 Pink Salmon
5-ish Chum Salmon
6 Staghorn Sculpin
1 Snake Prickleback
2 English Sole
1 Stiletto Schrimp
2 red Rock Crabs
First pull, 4:30:
1 White-spotted greenling, 12"
5 Penpoint Gunnels, 1 of them quite teeny-tiny
3 Herring
15 Striped Perch
18 Chinook Salmon, 1 hatchery
1 Pink Salmon
5-ish Chum Salmon
6 Staghorn Sculpin
1 Snake Prickleback
2 English Sole
1 Stiletto Schrimp
2 red Rock Crabs
Second pull, 6:30
2 Striped Perch
1 male Pipefish with eggs
64 Chum Salmon
18 Chinook Salmon
5 Staghorn Sculpins
3 Sticklebacks (not Pricklebacks!)
1 English Sole
1 Helmet Crab
2 Red Rock Crabs
15 Water Jellies
100 Gooseberry Comb Jellies
8 Moon Jellies
12 small Coonstripe (?) Shrimp
2 Striped Perch
1 male Pipefish with eggs
64 Chum Salmon
18 Chinook Salmon
5 Staghorn Sculpins
3 Sticklebacks (not Pricklebacks!)
1 English Sole
1 Helmet Crab
2 Red Rock Crabs
15 Water Jellies
100 Gooseberry Comb Jellies
8 Moon Jellies
12 small Coonstripe (?) Shrimp
During our two separate lavaging sessions, we found that the Chinook divided themselves by food preference. Some had eaten herring, several had eaten midges (which we usually only see in stomachs in late summer), some had eaten krill, and one selected out the crab zooea. A couple of them had disturbingly large chunks taken out of their backs, which probably were where an alcid had pecked at them and failed to pick them out of the water. One had a healed scar of about that shape. Nice to know they can recover.
Russel said that some fish biologists have observed that some fish have complex mating rituals, about as complex as those of birds. So, we may conclude that some fish are about as smart as some birds. I think that their eating habits also show this. They don't all eat the same thing, which means it isn't completely instinct driven. They have to select for what they'll eat, and each fishie makes its own choices.
Russel said that some fish biologists have observed that some fish have complex mating rituals, about as complex as those of birds. So, we may conclude that some fish are about as smart as some birds. I think that their eating habits also show this. They don't all eat the same thing, which means it isn't completely instinct driven. They have to select for what they'll eat, and each fishie makes its own choices.