Fun with baby Coho in Fort Bragg

I had the honor to visit Dave/Pescadore at the fish station on Pudding Creek in Fort Bragg:

Kewl stuff, Mateo!  Thanks for posting this.   

Cool post. Where can I get some of that "dope water".

Anywhere in Mendo

Cool post. Where can I get some of that "dope water".

That explains why the salmon aren't returning. They bathe them in bong water, so they forget where they came from!

They bathe them in bong water, so they forget where they came from!

And the rest got caught from having the munchies

  Classic!

Nice post.  Dave your screw trap setup is killer, that is dominating that creek...gotta have great efficiency.

Nice post.  Dave your screw trap setup is killer, that is dominating that creek...gotta have great efficiency.

Is the screw trap the thing that looks like the A-bomb we dropped Hiroshima?

What's it for?

The big screw trap very slowly revolves with the creek flow and very gently catches all the baby outgoing Coho and Trout.  The fish are then brought up to the fish station and put into aerated holding tanks. Then they go into the dope water and get stunned.  Then they each get a tiny scannable (sp?) chip inserted, each with a unique number and put on a database.

Then, when they reach the dam, a couple miles or so downstream, they get rescanned, so we know how many made it downstream.  Then, after they've lived on the ocean and return to spawn, they get scanned again, so we know how many survived on the ocean.

It's part of the Cambell Timber Management / DF&G Salmonid Monitoring Project.  Very cool, and I'm really very impressed with how well Cambell is managing the land that they bought from Georgia pacific, when GP cut and ran and closed local lumber mill.  Maybe we can have a new, smaller, more efficient, high tech lumber mill here again someday.  We have this great sustainable lumber recourse, and no way to use it locally.  Quite a pity.  Meanwhile, Cambell is doing all it can to help the fish, fix the old logging roads to prevent silt-up, etc..

I was also just impressed with how Dave handled each fish so gently, and how Cambell is hiring young assistants, at good pay.  We need more of this!
GPS monitoring would be even more cool.  (See separate thread; not from me.)

Granted that we probably shouldn't mess with the little fish in the first place, but this is the only way to study the little fellows.

Cheers,  -Matt

Matt - cool pics.

Dave, I WANT YOUR JOB!!! Hire me!!! Need to get out of the concrete jungle

Great followup info, Matt.   

All smart-aleck comments aside, this is a great post with really neat information and reporting on what two of our quality members are doing to be involved and to help fisheries.  Bravo!   

Thanks Abking, and I don't mind the smart alecky comments.  (Did you just call me a "quality member?"  )  I took the picture of the "dope water" because I knew it would be funny for the group.  Even fish biologists can have a sense of humor. 

And yes, folks, the giant yet gentle fish trap does indeed look like a big awesome bomb or something.  It has so much torque that one could probably hook a small but constant electrical generator to it.

Cheers,  -Matt

Thanks Abking, and I don't mind the silly comments.  I took the picture of the "dope water" because I knew it would be funny for the group.  Even fish biologists can have a sense of humor.

I'm glad you posted the "dope water" pic and the others.  It got a good laugh out of me and any time someone makes anyone laugh its a good thing.  I was half actually hoping someone could tell me what was in the "dope water" as we used to use a dose of some chemical in the tide pools while sampling sculpins and I cannot remember what is was. 

Nice report!
That's the kinda thing that I do on the weekends at Yuba, but we don't have any Coho...
The Dope is probably MS-222.  It's a little carcinogenic, so careful with use.  It helps the fish to relax & to be less stressed from the handling, but it can also be used for euthanasia, so the right concentration is very important.
Mooch, Sean is hiring & I'm applying.  You should apply too, then we can work together!?!?