This week is going to be our last week of research out on the water. Actually though, wednesday will be our last day because we need thursday to prepare for our open house on friday. The open house is when our sponsors come to see what the kids are up to and such.
last week went pretty well and we caught a ton of fish up in namayo like I mentioned earlier. We have no moved back down into dorothy to finish up gill netting and get some substrate samples. Today started out with some surprise rain and thunder so we were delayed until about 10 or so. We made pretty good time out to our project sites, but not before I saw the world's largest dock spider. And yeah, I know i'm terrified of spiders and you might think i'm exagerrating, but seriously, this is the largest spider I have ever seen in manitoba. It looked like a baby tarantula and I was terrified. haha.
Anyways, the weather cleared up and we had a nice sunny morning and got all our nets pulled and fish sampled and then returned to our supervisors cabin, as we usually do, to re-tub nets and do somemore data entry. We were just done lunch and our nets and had moved into the outdoor gazebo when it started to rain for a bit yet again. It wasn't bad at all though as we just sat comfortably in the gazebo and watched it rain while still getting our data entry done.
I will be sad once our research is over but I suppose on the bright side, I won't have to go through so much sunscreen anymore.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Rain, pain and more assorted goodtimes.
Alright, so I tried to have a catchy post title..it's more difficult than you think. Anyway, last wednesday night I met my students and explained the project and such to them. Thursday and friday we were out on the water getting them used to how things go and collecting our first data. We were out in dorothy lake where the sturgeon seem to be almost chubby looking but we don't catch very many. We aren't exactly sure why there aren't very many and why they're so chubby looking but I guess that is what the projectis trying to figure out. We continued netting the same way on monday and tuesday and also took some substrate samples. We get these by dropping an eckman or a ponar(not sure about spelling) down to the bottom and they have different mechanisms but either way they snap shut and grab a sample of the bottom, we pull it back up, pour it into a bin, mix it up a bit, record what the substrate materials is..so like sand, gravel, clay, silt etc and then we pour it through a screen and collect any of the bugs that were in the sample. Unfortuneately on monday it was raining and cold and windy so it was kind of unpleasant throughout the day. Tuesday was slightly better because everyone dressed warmer for the weather but it still rained and was a little windy.
Today we moved further upstream where it was known that there are more sturgeon. The sturgeon in this area are generally smaller lengthwise but are also much much thinner looking than the sturgeon we caught in dorothy. Again, it isn't known why so many fish stay further upstream and are so much thinner but we're trying to figure it out. After catching less than ten sturgeon per day mixed in with many by catch species it is very different netting where we were today. There were so many sturgeon and almost no other species of fish at all. I think our final count from all 3 nets at the end of the day was upwards of 150. But, let me just mention that this area is suspected by some to be a nursery area meaning that a whole bunch of the young sturgeon in this section of the river stay there to grow up, it's not the norm for the whole length of river for there to be that many fish in one area.
So I have mentioned about the rain but not the "pain" part yet. Really, it's not that bad and i'm being a bit soft I guess but today we were short on gloves so between the 4 of us we had 5 gloves. The guys pulling in the nets both needed 2 gloves which left me 1 glove to sample fish with. For anybody who hasn't seen juvenile sturgeon, they are spiky little monsters. haha. No, but really, they have a row of what are called "scutes" down each of their sides and their back and the younger they are, the sharper they are. So by the time I had sampled around 90 fish while trying to be quick because there were so many, my hands were looking a little rough. I have little scratches and cuts all over. But oh well, I suppose I should see the brightside here and realise how neat it was to see so many sturgeon and how nice it is to see all of them.
We're continuing netting in the same area for a couple days, though we are setting less nets because we only need to sample so many fish for each area, and because we didn't catch huge numbers in other sample sites, we can finish up in this area pretty quick. I think they were just going to set 1 net this evening and we'll pull that tomorrow but then just do a bunch of substrate samplses. But yes, all is well and I continue to hope for good weather.
Today we moved further upstream where it was known that there are more sturgeon. The sturgeon in this area are generally smaller lengthwise but are also much much thinner looking than the sturgeon we caught in dorothy. Again, it isn't known why so many fish stay further upstream and are so much thinner but we're trying to figure it out. After catching less than ten sturgeon per day mixed in with many by catch species it is very different netting where we were today. There were so many sturgeon and almost no other species of fish at all. I think our final count from all 3 nets at the end of the day was upwards of 150. But, let me just mention that this area is suspected by some to be a nursery area meaning that a whole bunch of the young sturgeon in this section of the river stay there to grow up, it's not the norm for the whole length of river for there to be that many fish in one area.
So I have mentioned about the rain but not the "pain" part yet. Really, it's not that bad and i'm being a bit soft I guess but today we were short on gloves so between the 4 of us we had 5 gloves. The guys pulling in the nets both needed 2 gloves which left me 1 glove to sample fish with. For anybody who hasn't seen juvenile sturgeon, they are spiky little monsters. haha. No, but really, they have a row of what are called "scutes" down each of their sides and their back and the younger they are, the sharper they are. So by the time I had sampled around 90 fish while trying to be quick because there were so many, my hands were looking a little rough. I have little scratches and cuts all over. But oh well, I suppose I should see the brightside here and realise how neat it was to see so many sturgeon and how nice it is to see all of them.
We're continuing netting in the same area for a couple days, though we are setting less nets because we only need to sample so many fish for each area, and because we didn't catch huge numbers in other sample sites, we can finish up in this area pretty quick. I think they were just going to set 1 net this evening and we'll pull that tomorrow but then just do a bunch of substrate samplses. But yes, all is well and I continue to hope for good weather.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
July 2
Well, Happy belated Canada day everybody. I realise I haven't blogged anything in almost 3 weeks now but it's been pretty busy and alot of the same stuff that I have described before. For the last 2 weeks of june I was doing the same stuff with the adult sturgeon, catching them and testing stomach contents. It was really nice weather for most of our time out there and we got alot of sun being on the river every day.
On the 25thand 26th of june there were some people from our crew that were away so there was some people shifting so I helped with a project on larval sturgeon. They were very very little and kind of looked like little tadpoles more than little fish due to their weird triangular heads. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures because that may have stressed the fish. The project itself was all about their stress levels and how certain elements of the way they were raised effects their stress levels later in life. Working with the very small sturgeon was very neat they were all a little more than half an inch long and very quick when they want to get somewhere. For this project I was working at the ATCO trailer again which is where my project was 3 years ago when I attended the DRSA as a student. It brought back the memories. haha.
There was quite a bit of wildlife around the trailer and during our breaks we saw deer, a fox, plenty of birds and there is also a pair of groundhogs that live in the area and you would see them pretty much daily. They kind of reminded me of my fat cat and I think I have come to the conclusion that my cat isn't fat, she's just half groundhog.
Anyway, back to what i'm up to this week. I haven't been doing too much this week but tonight is a bbq at the place the students are staying. They are just arriving today and then this evening the bbq is kind of a time for us tutors to meet them and get to know them a little bit. Then thursday and friday are kind of our orientation days with them and i'm sure by friday we will be well into collecting data for their project. So yes, that is what I have been up to, perhaps I will try and blog something again in less than 3 weeks. haha.
On the 25thand 26th of june there were some people from our crew that were away so there was some people shifting so I helped with a project on larval sturgeon. They were very very little and kind of looked like little tadpoles more than little fish due to their weird triangular heads. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures because that may have stressed the fish. The project itself was all about their stress levels and how certain elements of the way they were raised effects their stress levels later in life. Working with the very small sturgeon was very neat they were all a little more than half an inch long and very quick when they want to get somewhere. For this project I was working at the ATCO trailer again which is where my project was 3 years ago when I attended the DRSA as a student. It brought back the memories. haha.
There was quite a bit of wildlife around the trailer and during our breaks we saw deer, a fox, plenty of birds and there is also a pair of groundhogs that live in the area and you would see them pretty much daily. They kind of reminded me of my fat cat and I think I have come to the conclusion that my cat isn't fat, she's just half groundhog.
Anyway, back to what i'm up to this week. I haven't been doing too much this week but tonight is a bbq at the place the students are staying. They are just arriving today and then this evening the bbq is kind of a time for us tutors to meet them and get to know them a little bit. Then thursday and friday are kind of our orientation days with them and i'm sure by friday we will be well into collecting data for their project. So yes, that is what I have been up to, perhaps I will try and blog something again in less than 3 weeks. haha.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Day off
Yesterday was a pretty good day, we caught plenty of adult sturgeon. They were all pretty medium size and we haven't caught a really big one yet. The cool thing though was we caught a sturgeon that looked pretty much albino. It was very light colored. I will attach a picture. other than that it was just a pretty regular day and thankfully it didn't rain.
Today I have the day off because there was a chance of thunderstorms. Now it is sunny and 18 degrees outside but it's too late to go now, haha. So I will continue sitting around enjoying the nice day.
Today I have the day off because there was a chance of thunderstorms. Now it is sunny and 18 degrees outside but it's too late to go now, haha. So I will continue sitting around enjoying the nice day.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Bumming on the beach.
In my last post a minute ago I forgot to mention that when we were getting ready to go pull the last night we decided that we didn't need all 5 of us in the boat so Sarah and I stayed on the beach where we had been doing our field work.
It was just a little sandy section of shore just downstream of sturgeon falls but it was sunny and warm and had lots of interesting things. I found a spot where it looked like a turtle nest had been because there were a bunch of soft broken egg shells laying around. I also decided to be my random self and climb up one of the banks to see what was around and came across 2 garter snakes. One was pretty big and about 3 feet long and one was smaller and only about a foot long. But the weird thing was that the smaller one looked like it was molting but got stuck because the very end of it's tail looked like it was tied in a not. I dunno how that happened..and it wasn't just curled up that way because it was dragging it's tail along that way. Being the kind of person I am, I picked it up and carefully untied it's tail....I wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do, but I was just trying to help. I put it down and it slithered away so I hope it was good.
There was other random neat stuff like an owl pellet and the world's greatest skipping stone. Sadly, I am not very skilled in the ways of the skipping stone so I threw it and it hit the water once, flew about 10 ft and then hit the water and sank. maybe next time.
This has been my random explanation of a nice half hour bumming around on a random beach along the Winnipeg river. haha.
It was just a little sandy section of shore just downstream of sturgeon falls but it was sunny and warm and had lots of interesting things. I found a spot where it looked like a turtle nest had been because there were a bunch of soft broken egg shells laying around. I also decided to be my random self and climb up one of the banks to see what was around and came across 2 garter snakes. One was pretty big and about 3 feet long and one was smaller and only about a foot long. But the weird thing was that the smaller one looked like it was molting but got stuck because the very end of it's tail looked like it was tied in a not. I dunno how that happened..and it wasn't just curled up that way because it was dragging it's tail along that way. Being the kind of person I am, I picked it up and carefully untied it's tail....I wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do, but I was just trying to help. I put it down and it slithered away so I hope it was good.
There was other random neat stuff like an owl pellet and the world's greatest skipping stone. Sadly, I am not very skilled in the ways of the skipping stone so I threw it and it hit the water once, flew about 10 ft and then hit the water and sank. maybe next time.
This has been my random explanation of a nice half hour bumming around on a random beach along the Winnipeg river. haha.
Tuesday, June 10
Last week we continued netting juveniles and collecting our usual data. It was a pretty good week with the exception of friday, because it was pouring rain the entire day and I found out my so called "rain gear" was not rain gear at all. By the time we had pulled our nets in a record breaking 2 hours I was soaked to the skin. Luckily I got back to Pinawa by 11 in the morning and got dry clothes on and ended up going home for the weekend.
This week I have yet again switched projects. Our project supervisor from the juvenile project is gone for a month to tie up some loose ends before the students arrive. The new project I have been assigned to is with adult sturgeon. Sounds exciting, I know.
Monday we went out in the pouring rain again and only caught 2 sturgeon in one of our nets. one was too small and the other was just big enough for our research.
Today, instead of setting and pulling our own nets we joined up with some people from Manitoba Hydro. Or atleast I think they are from hydro.. But they are netting adults anyway so we just help with their nets, let them do their thing and then we do our thing. It seems my Aunty Shelley is a bit of a celebrity out this way as I am sometimes introduced to people as "Shelley Matkowski's neice". So far it has worked out pretty well and she seems to have a pretty good reputation. haha. (and aunty, I will try and keep up the good reputation haha).
We are working with Ken Kansas and a summer student named Matt. ( I think it is "ken" it might be "kent", but Imentioned this because I know aunty shelley and mom know him from numerous things). They are nice guys and it was a great day. I believe we will be working with these guys for a while.
The rest of the week is supposed to be rain, which is a bummer because unless there is lightning, we still have to go out. haha. But my mom was nice enough to take me shopping for new rain gear so I have officially stayed dry thus far. Here's hoping for good weather.
This week I have yet again switched projects. Our project supervisor from the juvenile project is gone for a month to tie up some loose ends before the students arrive. The new project I have been assigned to is with adult sturgeon. Sounds exciting, I know.
Monday we went out in the pouring rain again and only caught 2 sturgeon in one of our nets. one was too small and the other was just big enough for our research.
Today, instead of setting and pulling our own nets we joined up with some people from Manitoba Hydro. Or atleast I think they are from hydro.. But they are netting adults anyway so we just help with their nets, let them do their thing and then we do our thing. It seems my Aunty Shelley is a bit of a celebrity out this way as I am sometimes introduced to people as "Shelley Matkowski's neice". So far it has worked out pretty well and she seems to have a pretty good reputation. haha. (and aunty, I will try and keep up the good reputation haha).
We are working with Ken Kansas and a summer student named Matt. ( I think it is "ken" it might be "kent", but Imentioned this because I know aunty shelley and mom know him from numerous things). They are nice guys and it was a great day. I believe we will be working with these guys for a while.
The rest of the week is supposed to be rain, which is a bummer because unless there is lightning, we still have to go out. haha. But my mom was nice enough to take me shopping for new rain gear so I have officially stayed dry thus far. Here's hoping for good weather.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
I got my first battle wound today. I was holding a juvenile sturgeon but only had a glove on my left hand so when the sturgeon suddenly flipped around, my first response was to grab it with my other hand. Sadly, my hand caught the sharp spikes on the side of the fish and my right palm now has to gashes in it. Though really they are pretty small cuts, but they did bleed a bit and hurt if I push on them the wrong way. oh well. It just makes me tougher.
I had this weekend off and Monday I switched from netting juvenile sturgeon to setting drift traps. The drift traps go in around this time of year to catch any baby sturgeon which have just hatched from eggs and are being flushed downstream. So Monday we took 8 drift traps and set them just downstream of slave falls. We then went up to slave falls for lunch, but found that the spill gates had been opened up alot and there was some pretty large waves around. We went into shore and were told that the water level was going to get higher so we shouldn't set anymore drift traps.
Before we headed home, we had to move one of the VRAP buoys that had floated downstream. This meant dragging the huge buoy into the boat, driving up closer to the slave falls generating station itself and putting the buoy back in the water. After some tricky work and a slightly scary moment or two because of such fast moving water and large waves, the buoy was good to go and we were headed back for home.
After all of that yesterday we got back but weren't sure what we were going to do today because we didn't want to set drift traps if the water was going to get higher because then the buoys don't have enough rope and things get more complicated. Last night though I got called and they told me I would be back working with the juvenile sturgeon project again while they figured out what to do with the drift traps. So I have now jumped crews again and will be continuing with the netting of juvenile sturgeon.
I am also pretty tired today since I have been in the sun all day and I didn't get to bed until late last night after I had watched Pittsburgh finally beat Detroit in the 3rd overtime period 4-3. But because of that, I am happy tired.
I had this weekend off and Monday I switched from netting juvenile sturgeon to setting drift traps. The drift traps go in around this time of year to catch any baby sturgeon which have just hatched from eggs and are being flushed downstream. So Monday we took 8 drift traps and set them just downstream of slave falls. We then went up to slave falls for lunch, but found that the spill gates had been opened up alot and there was some pretty large waves around. We went into shore and were told that the water level was going to get higher so we shouldn't set anymore drift traps.
Before we headed home, we had to move one of the VRAP buoys that had floated downstream. This meant dragging the huge buoy into the boat, driving up closer to the slave falls generating station itself and putting the buoy back in the water. After some tricky work and a slightly scary moment or two because of such fast moving water and large waves, the buoy was good to go and we were headed back for home.
After all of that yesterday we got back but weren't sure what we were going to do today because we didn't want to set drift traps if the water was going to get higher because then the buoys don't have enough rope and things get more complicated. Last night though I got called and they told me I would be back working with the juvenile sturgeon project again while they figured out what to do with the drift traps. So I have now jumped crews again and will be continuing with the netting of juvenile sturgeon.
I am also pretty tired today since I have been in the sun all day and I didn't get to bed until late last night after I had watched Pittsburgh finally beat Detroit in the 3rd overtime period 4-3. But because of that, I am happy tired.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Thursday, May 29
Well, this whole week we have just continued netting for juvenile fish in the river and have caught quite a few. We've tagged them, weighed and measured them and taken aging structures.
Yesterday we also caught a little northern pike in a net and today we caught a white sucker. Because we are using 1 inch gill nets we also catch tons of trout perch which are just little fish but are very tricky to get out of the net. Also, today we caught a burbot that had a perfectly round hole on the side of it's body, it was very strange as it was just this big hollow hole, we stilla ren't sure what it was from.
The weather is getting better and it has been a little less windy lately. The past 2 days have been nice and warm outside and today we were wearing t-shirts in the boat instead of 3 layers plus a jacket. Unortuneately, because I was only wearing a t-shirt I got some "sturgeon rash" which is what they call it when a sturgeon rubs up against your bare arm, and because they are so pokey and sand papery it irritates your arm so your arm goes all red.
Some of the geese and foxes in Pinawa have their babies already and i'm sure that the deer around town will have their babies soon too. Also on the topic of animals..whenever we are out pulling nets the seagulls immediately are beside the boat. Today there were not only seagulls but also a flock of terns flew around for a while and 2 pelicans who lost interest pretty quickly.
That's about all the news I have for right now. Here are some pictures.
Yesterday we also caught a little northern pike in a net and today we caught a white sucker. Because we are using 1 inch gill nets we also catch tons of trout perch which are just little fish but are very tricky to get out of the net. Also, today we caught a burbot that had a perfectly round hole on the side of it's body, it was very strange as it was just this big hollow hole, we stilla ren't sure what it was from.
The weather is getting better and it has been a little less windy lately. The past 2 days have been nice and warm outside and today we were wearing t-shirts in the boat instead of 3 layers plus a jacket. Unortuneately, because I was only wearing a t-shirt I got some "sturgeon rash" which is what they call it when a sturgeon rubs up against your bare arm, and because they are so pokey and sand papery it irritates your arm so your arm goes all red.
Some of the geese and foxes in Pinawa have their babies already and i'm sure that the deer around town will have their babies soon too. Also on the topic of animals..whenever we are out pulling nets the seagulls immediately are beside the boat. Today there were not only seagulls but also a flock of terns flew around for a while and 2 pelicans who lost interest pretty quickly.
That's about all the news I have for right now. Here are some pictures.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
I had the weekend off!
So, I haven't written on here for a week but I was busy during the week and not around a computer and then I went home for the weekend so I didn't have time to write on here.
I have now got my laptop in Pinawa so will be able to update more often.
I have switched over to a different project, the one that I will be working on for the summer. I come and go for Pinawa every day by boat so there are no more over night trips to slave falls. The project is working with Juvenile sturgeon in the river. We catch them using nets with a much smaller mesh than I got used to with the previous project, as we are now using 1,3, and 5 inch nets and i was used to working with 10 and 12.
We net the fish in the same way as we did with the adult fish but with these nets we often get fish other than sturgeon in the nets. These fish have to be untangled and released back into the river after we record what type of fish it was and it's length. So far we have caught walleye, sauger, trout perch, mariahs/burbots, perch..and I think that's it. Oh, and we also get crayfish in the nets as they sit on the bottom so the crayfish climb onto them.
That is basically what I have been up to this past week, just getting used to the new project and netting plenty of fish.
I will try to update this more often but for now I have to go!
I have now got my laptop in Pinawa so will be able to update more often.
I have switched over to a different project, the one that I will be working on for the summer. I come and go for Pinawa every day by boat so there are no more over night trips to slave falls. The project is working with Juvenile sturgeon in the river. We catch them using nets with a much smaller mesh than I got used to with the previous project, as we are now using 1,3, and 5 inch nets and i was used to working with 10 and 12.
We net the fish in the same way as we did with the adult fish but with these nets we often get fish other than sturgeon in the nets. These fish have to be untangled and released back into the river after we record what type of fish it was and it's length. So far we have caught walleye, sauger, trout perch, mariahs/burbots, perch..and I think that's it. Oh, and we also get crayfish in the nets as they sit on the bottom so the crayfish climb onto them.
That is basically what I have been up to this past week, just getting used to the new project and netting plenty of fish.
I will try to update this more often but for now I have to go!
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Pictures 2
Here are some more pictures I took this morning of the cabin, the hill up to the cabin, the two sections of the dam and Holly and I putting a sturgeon into the holding tank.
Long weekend update
I haven't had a chance to post any updates on here since Tuesday so I'll just summarize.
Thursday we came home in the early afternoon through some strong winds so the water was a little choppy but we saw a group of 6 otters playing around on the bank so it was pretty neat. On Friday there were ridiculously strong winds so we were delayed from going back out to Slave falls. Saturday morning we got our stuff together and first had to rescue one of our boats from where it had been blown against the opposite shore on Friday when Claire took it to go try to save Laura. Laura's boat had broken down just outside of the marina when she had been on her way to get the guys who had taken the speed boat and broken down on the way to slave falls. Luckily Laura got her boat going again but they had to leave the smaller boat on the opposite shore as the wind was too strong for it to make it back. Laura then took her boat and went and got the guys, and after a couple more shenanigans the guys were at slave and Laura was back in Pinawa safe.
So, as I said, we went Saturday morning to get the smaller boat from the opposite shore. It was about half full of water from waves, so it took us a little while to bail it out and get it going again.
Once we had both boats ready to go, we headed for slave. It took an hour and a half instead of half an hour due to more strong winds. We had some down time at the cabin and then went out and set nights for the night.
This morning we pulled nets and caught about 6 fish but they aren't spawning yet, so we will be up here for a while. Now we are just hanging out for the afternoon and watching the hockey games and playing cards.
Soon I will add some more pictures I took this morning.
Thursday we came home in the early afternoon through some strong winds so the water was a little choppy but we saw a group of 6 otters playing around on the bank so it was pretty neat. On Friday there were ridiculously strong winds so we were delayed from going back out to Slave falls. Saturday morning we got our stuff together and first had to rescue one of our boats from where it had been blown against the opposite shore on Friday when Claire took it to go try to save Laura. Laura's boat had broken down just outside of the marina when she had been on her way to get the guys who had taken the speed boat and broken down on the way to slave falls. Luckily Laura got her boat going again but they had to leave the smaller boat on the opposite shore as the wind was too strong for it to make it back. Laura then took her boat and went and got the guys, and after a couple more shenanigans the guys were at slave and Laura was back in Pinawa safe.
So, as I said, we went Saturday morning to get the smaller boat from the opposite shore. It was about half full of water from waves, so it took us a little while to bail it out and get it going again.
Once we had both boats ready to go, we headed for slave. It took an hour and a half instead of half an hour due to more strong winds. We had some down time at the cabin and then went out and set nights for the night.
This morning we pulled nets and caught about 6 fish but they aren't spawning yet, so we will be up here for a while. Now we are just hanging out for the afternoon and watching the hockey games and playing cards.
Soon I will add some more pictures I took this morning.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Pictures!
Well, we went out this morning and i finally remembered my camera so here are some pictures. We didn't catch any really big ones but it gives you the idea of what we're up to.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Monday and Tuesday
Well I realized that we have a laptop here and slave and most websites are blocked but apparently this one isn't so that is handy because I can get anything exciting on here right away. Yesterday was Monday and I was in Pinawa attending a meeting and getting some stuff done with the MSA. After lunch we headed back up to slave falls and set our nets, it was a pretty uneventful day.
Today we went out to pull nets and had some difficulty because we had placed nets right near the dam and they opened the gates more over night so the current was stronger and made pulling nets super difficult. Then one of the tracking buoys worth more than i'll make all summer was under water, also due to the extra water coming through the dam. So a large portion of the afternoon was spent first trying to pull the 200lb buoys into a boat, untie it and get it fixed and dry. We then set nets and cam in for some supper. We are now about to play some cards so I will cut this one short.
Today we went out to pull nets and had some difficulty because we had placed nets right near the dam and they opened the gates more over night so the current was stronger and made pulling nets super difficult. Then one of the tracking buoys worth more than i'll make all summer was under water, also due to the extra water coming through the dam. So a large portion of the afternoon was spent first trying to pull the 200lb buoys into a boat, untie it and get it fixed and dry. We then set nets and cam in for some supper. We are now about to play some cards so I will cut this one short.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Sunday, May 11
Well today is Mother's Day! That is about the only way I remembered what day of the week it was this morning though, you can kind of lose track of what day it is when you are out there. I am now back in Pinawa just getting cleaned up, and doing laundry so everything is clean and smells better by the time I am headed back out there again tomorrow afternoon.
When we went outside this morning is was gorgeous and much nicer than some of the other mornings. It was warm (well, warm enough), sunny and there was no wind. We caught 6 fish, including a big male that was about 6 feet long. After we pulled our nets we ate some lunch and then had down time until we were being picked up by a faster boat around 3 to go back to Pinawa for the night.
In yesterday's post I mentioned I was dehydrated in the evening. I had a bunch of water but when I tried to go to bed I had a bad headache and could not fall asleep. The last time I checked the time on my phone it was 3:52am. Being up at 7 this morning felt terrible so during our down time on the afternoon I took a nap which seemed to help me not feel so dead.
I'm glad to be back at the house in Pinawa because I really need a shower, some sleep, and some clean clothes. I was a little bummed out when I checked my email and remember I have meeting to attend at 9 tomorrow morning so I can sleep in but not as much as I hoped.
Also, we had a camera on the boat today so I will get those pictures emailed to me as soon as I can and put a couple on here but I am taking my camera up tomorrow so I will have plenty of pictures to come.
When we went outside this morning is was gorgeous and much nicer than some of the other mornings. It was warm (well, warm enough), sunny and there was no wind. We caught 6 fish, including a big male that was about 6 feet long. After we pulled our nets we ate some lunch and then had down time until we were being picked up by a faster boat around 3 to go back to Pinawa for the night.
In yesterday's post I mentioned I was dehydrated in the evening. I had a bunch of water but when I tried to go to bed I had a bad headache and could not fall asleep. The last time I checked the time on my phone it was 3:52am. Being up at 7 this morning felt terrible so during our down time on the afternoon I took a nap which seemed to help me not feel so dead.
I'm glad to be back at the house in Pinawa because I really need a shower, some sleep, and some clean clothes. I was a little bummed out when I checked my email and remember I have meeting to attend at 9 tomorrow morning so I can sleep in but not as much as I hoped.
Also, we had a camera on the boat today so I will get those pictures emailed to me as soon as I can and put a couple on here but I am taking my camera up tomorrow so I will have plenty of pictures to come.
Saturday, May 10
Same schedule this morning as yesterday. Up at 7, on the water by 8 etc. We caught a total of 8 Sturgeon and were unhappy when we had 2 nets get messed up.
One of our nets was so full of pine tree branches it looked as if we murdered a Christmas tree, and the other got caught on some unknown object at the bottom and ripped in the center. Luckily we got both halves of our ripped net back into the boat, this is important because if we had lost a length of net fish could have gotten caught in the net and died, but we didn't so all was well. Though, re-tubbing took about 2 and a half hours because we had to fix the ripped net and untangled every piece of pine tree from the other bad net.
I wasn't too unhappy though, because we had caught a fish about five and a half feet long. The only down side being that sturgeon are fairly slimy fish, which means you have to hug them close to your body when holding them so they don't slip away and a five and a half foot long fish has a lot of slime to go around. My rain jacket will never be the same.
We decided not to set nets for the afternoon as we didn't catch too many yesterday so we took it easy for the afternoon. I spent some time looking at the sturgeon tracking system they had working with 2 computers upstairs. Last year they put acoustic tags in about 40 fish and they put 2 sets of 3 buoys in place which send out pulses which get signals off the tags if that fish is in the area and it shows you on the screen exactly where the fish is between those 3 buoys. It's pretty cool but only about 6 of the fish that were tagged are around right now.
I also discovered that there are plenty of Grouse in the area and those birds are really stupid and kind of perverts. I gather this from the fact that they will not run away or move until you are about to step on them and because I had one come up and look at me while I was going pee. We go to the bathroom in the bush out there because there is no running water so the toilets have to be filled with water manually and it is a long haul bringing water up from the river. So if you really have to go at night, you don't have to go outside but mostly you take a charming walk to the bush.
By the time we had reset 5 nets for the night and were back for supper I was tired and dehydrated but thinking of what a solid fitness program I am now on. I also found out that though we are going home tomorrow evening, we will be coming back up Monday afternoon for another 4 days. I don't know how I feel about this yet as catching fish is fun and interesting but it is pretty hard work at certain points.
Tomorrow is also mothers day and I tried to call home this evening but my parents had taken off for Riding Mountain without warning, how terrible. Haha, I'm kidding, but they better be home tomorrow!
One of our nets was so full of pine tree branches it looked as if we murdered a Christmas tree, and the other got caught on some unknown object at the bottom and ripped in the center. Luckily we got both halves of our ripped net back into the boat, this is important because if we had lost a length of net fish could have gotten caught in the net and died, but we didn't so all was well. Though, re-tubbing took about 2 and a half hours because we had to fix the ripped net and untangled every piece of pine tree from the other bad net.
I wasn't too unhappy though, because we had caught a fish about five and a half feet long. The only down side being that sturgeon are fairly slimy fish, which means you have to hug them close to your body when holding them so they don't slip away and a five and a half foot long fish has a lot of slime to go around. My rain jacket will never be the same.
We decided not to set nets for the afternoon as we didn't catch too many yesterday so we took it easy for the afternoon. I spent some time looking at the sturgeon tracking system they had working with 2 computers upstairs. Last year they put acoustic tags in about 40 fish and they put 2 sets of 3 buoys in place which send out pulses which get signals off the tags if that fish is in the area and it shows you on the screen exactly where the fish is between those 3 buoys. It's pretty cool but only about 6 of the fish that were tagged are around right now.
I also discovered that there are plenty of Grouse in the area and those birds are really stupid and kind of perverts. I gather this from the fact that they will not run away or move until you are about to step on them and because I had one come up and look at me while I was going pee. We go to the bathroom in the bush out there because there is no running water so the toilets have to be filled with water manually and it is a long haul bringing water up from the river. So if you really have to go at night, you don't have to go outside but mostly you take a charming walk to the bush.
By the time we had reset 5 nets for the night and were back for supper I was tired and dehydrated but thinking of what a solid fitness program I am now on. I also found out that though we are going home tomorrow evening, we will be coming back up Monday afternoon for another 4 days. I don't know how I feel about this yet as catching fish is fun and interesting but it is pretty hard work at certain points.
Tomorrow is also mothers day and I tried to call home this evening but my parents had taken off for Riding Mountain without warning, how terrible. Haha, I'm kidding, but they better be home tomorrow!
Friday, May 9
I was up at an ugly 7am this morning. I haven't gotten up that early since my last chemistry lab in university a month ago. So needless to say, I was feeling a little rough. We had some breakfast quick, and were on the water by 8 ready to go pull nets.
After pulling in all 6 nets, we had caught a total of 6 fish. After every net, you tag the fish you caught and then put them back in the water before pulling to next net so as to stress the fish as little as possible. It was very cold though, as the rope of the nets you are pulling in is soaking wet and you are out on the open water where it is windy and I think it was a charming 8 degrees out or something. I also hurt my shoulder a little pulling in an anchor, just because I had my arm in a weird position. You have to pull the cement block anchors up about 70ft from the bottom of the river while the current pushes against it. You will probably be able to call me "the gun show" by the end of the summer because my arm muscles will be huge.
Once all our nets were in, we went back to shore to re-tub our nets. Re-tubbing is not the funnest thing in the world but it has to be done. This is where you dump the nets out of their tub and slowly put it back in, making sure it is straight and free of sticks so that when you set the net next it goes in properly. It took about an hour and then we went and reset 3 of the nets for the afternoon.
We pulled in our 3 nets around 4, caught a couple fish, one with a circular mark on it from where a lamprey had been attached, and then reset 6 nets for overnight. We went back to the cabin for supper, watched the hockey game (the Penguins won!), played a game of crib and were in bed by 9 again.
I'm a little concerned about pulling in the nets in the days to come when the big sturgeon start to show up in the area to spawn. The nets are hard enough to pull into the boat against the current with nothing in them, I don't want to imagine what it's going to be like pulling the net in with a couple 90lb female sturgeon in it who are thrashing around because they are less than thrilled.
After pulling in all 6 nets, we had caught a total of 6 fish. After every net, you tag the fish you caught and then put them back in the water before pulling to next net so as to stress the fish as little as possible. It was very cold though, as the rope of the nets you are pulling in is soaking wet and you are out on the open water where it is windy and I think it was a charming 8 degrees out or something. I also hurt my shoulder a little pulling in an anchor, just because I had my arm in a weird position. You have to pull the cement block anchors up about 70ft from the bottom of the river while the current pushes against it. You will probably be able to call me "the gun show" by the end of the summer because my arm muscles will be huge.
Once all our nets were in, we went back to shore to re-tub our nets. Re-tubbing is not the funnest thing in the world but it has to be done. This is where you dump the nets out of their tub and slowly put it back in, making sure it is straight and free of sticks so that when you set the net next it goes in properly. It took about an hour and then we went and reset 3 of the nets for the afternoon.
We pulled in our 3 nets around 4, caught a couple fish, one with a circular mark on it from where a lamprey had been attached, and then reset 6 nets for overnight. We went back to the cabin for supper, watched the hockey game (the Penguins won!), played a game of crib and were in bed by 9 again.
I'm a little concerned about pulling in the nets in the days to come when the big sturgeon start to show up in the area to spawn. The nets are hard enough to pull into the boat against the current with nothing in them, I don't want to imagine what it's going to be like pulling the net in with a couple 90lb female sturgeon in it who are thrashing around because they are less than thrilled.
Thursday, May 8
Today I met up with my project group in the morning with my stuff packed and ready to go and we headed to grab some groceries. We loaded up quite a bit since there are four of us and we will be staying at the cabin pretty frequently for the next month during the sturgeon spawn. We got everything loaded into the big pontoon boat, affectionately named "the tub" due to it's slow speed and poor maneuverability, and headed off for the cabin at slave falls.
After a very cold and windy hour, we arrived at the cabin. There are 3 cabins up on a hill right at the slave falls dam and they are owned by hydro, they are fairly large, have 2 floors and electricity (we are right next to a hydro dam) but no running water. So it was a little tiring carrying our gear up the hill and across the lawn to the cabin, but it was nice just to be indoors after our boat ride. One of the other project teams just doing day work in the area was there having lunch so we did the same. Once the other team had left we cleaned up a bit and got organized.
At 5 we went out on the boat and set 6 nets. You know you are catching something fairly large when the holes in the net are big enough for your head to fit through with room to spare. We were back by 6:30, had some supper, watched a little TV and were in bed by 9:45 knowing that we had to be out on the water Friday morning at 8 to pull our nets.
A couple side notes about being at Slave falls..
#1. I am impressed by the fact that I not only have cell reception here, but actually have better service than in Pinawa!
#2. We have cable so I can watch my Pittsburgh Penguins play Friday night!
After a very cold and windy hour, we arrived at the cabin. There are 3 cabins up on a hill right at the slave falls dam and they are owned by hydro, they are fairly large, have 2 floors and electricity (we are right next to a hydro dam) but no running water. So it was a little tiring carrying our gear up the hill and across the lawn to the cabin, but it was nice just to be indoors after our boat ride. One of the other project teams just doing day work in the area was there having lunch so we did the same. Once the other team had left we cleaned up a bit and got organized.
At 5 we went out on the boat and set 6 nets. You know you are catching something fairly large when the holes in the net are big enough for your head to fit through with room to spare. We were back by 6:30, had some supper, watched a little TV and were in bed by 9:45 knowing that we had to be out on the water Friday morning at 8 to pull our nets.
A couple side notes about being at Slave falls..
#1. I am impressed by the fact that I not only have cell reception here, but actually have better service than in Pinawa!
#2. We have cable so I can watch my Pittsburgh Penguins play Friday night!
Back from Slave Falls
Well, I am back in one piece from my 4 days at slave falls. I kept track of what I did each day so the next 4 posts will be each day separately since there was plenty going on every day. So here we go..
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
First week
Well, I didn't think I'd be the type to make my own blog but i figured that since I'm in Pinawa for the summer doing neat things and won't be able to see people as often, that I would make a blog so people can find out what I'm up to if they'd like.
So yes, I am working on a research project in Pinawa that deals with sturgeon. My first "adventure" of sort starts tomorrow. We will be taking a boat to an area near Slave Falls and staying at a cabin kind of thing until Sunday evening. Apparently we stay up there because it is such a long boat ride that going back and forth every day wouldn't be as charming as one would think.
Once we get up there we will be catching adult Sturgeon. How big is an adult sturgeon you ask? Well, we use 10-12 inch gill nets and I think they said last year their largest fish was about 6 feet long. We have to pull the nets into the boats ourselves so I also wonder if I will have arms of steel by the end of the summer.
Though I am a little nervous about dealing with a fish that is about the same length as me I think it is going to be lots of fun and I will write about how my first trip went when I get back Sunday evening.
So yes, I am working on a research project in Pinawa that deals with sturgeon. My first "adventure" of sort starts tomorrow. We will be taking a boat to an area near Slave Falls and staying at a cabin kind of thing until Sunday evening. Apparently we stay up there because it is such a long boat ride that going back and forth every day wouldn't be as charming as one would think.
Once we get up there we will be catching adult Sturgeon. How big is an adult sturgeon you ask? Well, we use 10-12 inch gill nets and I think they said last year their largest fish was about 6 feet long. We have to pull the nets into the boats ourselves so I also wonder if I will have arms of steel by the end of the summer.
Though I am a little nervous about dealing with a fish that is about the same length as me I think it is going to be lots of fun and I will write about how my first trip went when I get back Sunday evening.
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