Equipment failure

Equipment failure is a surefire way to put a big damper on your tightly scheduled day. One of the many things I have learned about science is that it never goes completely as planned and always plan for the unexpected. We certainly weren't expecting the head gasket on the motor for the boat to crack while it is still under warranty. we only got as far as the first buoy and the motor was smoking so bad there was now a smoke cover on Lake Sutherland. We then noticed oil leaking out where the exhaust was so we decided to get back to shore before we had to row. We are scheduled to try this again on Tuesday barring any unexpected breakdowns.

Pit Tagging juvenile wild Steelhead

The most exciting thing that I have gotten to do since January is to assist Biologists from Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and NOAA insert pit tags into Steelhead. A pit tag is basically a microchip (like the ones for dogs and cats) that has the hatchery it is from and a number. These tag's are inserted into the peritoneum of the fish with a big needle after we anesthetize them of course. A fin clip is taken also for genetic sampling which will tell us what family each fish belongs to so when these guys are old enough to breed we are not breeding brothers and sisters. The genetic info is put in a database with the number each fish got. These juvenile Steelhead are special little guys in lots of ways because they are now federally listed and this summer I helped to retrieve these babies and some of them still had their yolk sac. Where adult salmon lay their eggs is called a redd and these redds are raised areas of gravel in the river bed and they are marked out during spawning season so in about 6 weeks we go back to them and "pump" the redd. Basically using specialized equipment we force water under the gravel and catch the fry (baby salmon) in a net. The fry are taken back to the hatchery and put in either an incubator or round tank and now that they are about 6 inches long we insert the pit tags. This breeding program is achieving a few goals, increasing survival rates, cataloging genetics, and enhancing the breeding stock of the hatchery fish. Hatchery raised fish do not have the fitness of wild so by breeding wild stock with the hatchery fish it also increases survival rates for the hatchery fish.