Don't Mess with Nature

Well it looks like the laws of science win agian! Last week the WDFW team did the last of our Sandlance spawn data collection. For those who are unaware of the intricacies of the Sandlance, Ammodytes hexapterus spawn from November 1st through Febuary 15th. needless to say it has been a cold month and a half. In any case, one of the most iteresting places that we sample, ecologically, are the Elwha buffs.

Years ago, when the Nippon paper industry moved into Port Angeles, they needed a ready supply of fresh water for there paper making needs. Any anyone could tell you, the most ready supply of fresh water around PA is the Elwha river. Figuring that mother nature could take one more for the team, Nippon Paper constructed a large cement pipe to funnel water from the Elwha to the plant (a distance of ~4 miles). The interesting thing about all this is that, in order to protect the plant, Nippon 'armored' the Elwha feeder bluffs with ripwrap (large block of rock) and sheet pile (large sheets of iron). The result of this is that the Elwha system is sediment starved due to the poor transfer of wave energy from shoreline to bluffs. It seems, however, that nature is beginning to have enough.

As can be seen from the picture, we came across a hole in the great Nippon pipe, proving that rocks and iron will only get you so far when defending against the straight of Juan de Fuca. long story short, the pipe is clearly eroding away, and it seems that the mentality that spawned it (hopefully) may not be far behind. Don't mess with mother nature.

The fish fight back and other thoughts

A new quarter! As anyone who is reading this probably is aware, it is a new quarter for us here in Port Angeles, and this means a whole host of new fun research! Right? Well... in actuality things have remained quite the same for Ben in the old PA; the world turns, the grass grows, the ocean is cold and violent at 9:00 am, and we, the WDFW team, are out in it.

A merry Christmas

Santa was good to me this year. Why? you ask. Knowing me, and you knowing that I know that you know me (get that?), it may come as no surprise that I am deserving of all the wonderful goodies that Santa brought this year: primarily among them a new GPS and a waterproof camera. In an effort to give back some of my good fortune (thank you Tif and parents: ) I spent this day in the surf taking a host of pictures for your viewing pleasure, including two beautiful striped sea perch, who stabbed me with there dorsal fins (picture also included). This leads to the tittle of this blog (sorta a stream of consciousness i know). As well, there are many a photo of our seining efforts, that, save the two vindictive perch, yielded no fish whatsoever. Perhaps the fish have migrated to more productive waters, perhaps the season is effecting their metabolism, requiring less furloughs to the near shore? For whatever reason, here's hopping for a more bountiful net next week; herring, smelt and salmon...hold the perch!

Shark attack

Yay for the end of a successful quarter! As a result, I took it upon myself to attack this shark ...in a video game...in honor of all the work we've done in the ocean : D.

One Big Sticklback

Well it has been a while since the last post, and its been a bit slow on the dendrchronological front. Waiting for a research proposal to be approved in the park has put my project effectively on hold, so my time has been taken up with Near-shore work. Recently, we sampled a off-shore habitat/estuary and managed to catch a Coho salmon measuring over 750 mm ! As can be seen from the picture, the adipose fin is still present, and the fish had no tag- so chances are very good that this particular find was a wild Coho! What was most interesting to me was that, historically (meaning the past few months) this particular body of water had hereto only contained hundreds of disgusting stickleback! My guess... this guy ate them all...mmmmmmm.

Ahhh...to poke a tree finally

Finally and after long last, the first tree has been poked! This Friday John and I went out to the Elwha fish hatchery, in lue of permitting issues, to make some headway in the Dendro REU project! With the sound of construction high over head from the replacement bridge going in, we rooted around for some big strapping conifer trees in witch to collect samples from. As the trip continued, we managed to find a big tree far enough away from the alders to get a decent sample, so we gave it a good poke! Using our know-how, muscle and plenty of WD-40, we cored this nice Douglas-Fir specimen near the west bank of the Elwha River. As can be seen from the picture, John is expertly coring the tree (the one with the cougar scratch, safe)- as I, ever lazy, am taking the picture: D The data that we collected will be used in conjunction with the Olympic National Park samples to construct a chronology based on the Marine Derived Nitrogen signal of the Elwha river and the prevalent climate conditions of the Olympic Peninsula. Sounds fun eh?

Benjamin crosses Salt Creek

Well it has been a little while since i have posted...mostly due to crazy car troubles and the like- but this does not mean that I have been away from REU fun, no no, far from it! Last week we went out to Salt Creek to sample a few off-channel habitats with the old semi reliable rowboat. As can be seen above, John was kind enough to let me strike a noble pose as we made our way to the sample area. What is not evident from the photograph is that we forgot to put the plug into the boat (happens more often than one would think) and as a result, my interpretation of Benjamin crossing Salt Creek became Benjamin floundering in Salt Creek.

As it turned out, the second site of the day (Pished- like fished but with a P) yielded the most fish I have ever seen in one haul off the shore. A rough estimate put numbers of forage fish at the thousands (~4,500 anchovies, 2,500 surf smelt, 2,000 herring + dozens of other fish fauna). unfortunately, the sheer numbers of this haul made it difficult to capture on camera, so your best bet would be to go watch Finding Nemo- in particular the part where Nemo encourages, like, a million anchovies to escape the clutches of the evil humans, mu ha ha ha ha. In any case, the day certainly gave me hope of restoring some ecologically fit systems to the Straight, and a provided a re-justification of the importance of our work.

Whale'r of a Tale

A few days ago we went out on the WDFW Whaler, for myself the first time on the Straight of Juan de Fuca. It was a beautiful day on the straight, and as we left the harbor, the sea seemed smooth and welcoming. We snapped pictures and, of all the best news, I was given a job! As luck would have it, I have been given a job that requires i spend 20 hours a week out on the great blue nothing saving the environment I love. Yah, I could do that.

With this in mind we sped off to the Dungeness watershed near shore. Once there, the surf proved very tough, made tougher by the incredible drag produced by our dry suits in the current. To make a long and mostly tiresome (in experience and for me, the telling) story short, the drag, the overheating and the sea-sickness nearly proved too much for us. In the end, no more dry suits off the whaler, and one very very sore Charlie horse.