March 27th - The Wynoochee River

-The weather here in West Port has turned for the worse, we are expecting gale winds (40+knots) today so we will be diverting from the estuary and going up the Wynoochee river.  The sites we sampled are the Chehalis restoration, sand island east and the Wynoochee delta.  Sampling within a river is much easier compared to the estuary, the river is slow moving, the wind is reduced and the net is much smaller. I made the mistake today of not committing to the jump with both feet while getting out of the boat and I tried stepping down, missed the bottom and ended up soaking my left side down into my waders as the water was a little deeper then I had thought.  So lesson learned, always make sure you commit with both feet when getting out of the boat.

March 25-26th

 The First Day: March 25th:
- This morning took a bit longer then what is normal to head out because of a multitude of small hangups and the fact that I have no experience yet which I am sure does not help.  Today, however was an amazing day weather wise which is supposedly rare around Grays Harbor.
-Beach seining is a lot more work then pictures and descriptions lead on as I soon found out but the experience is still fun and you have a team there to help you out.
-We covered four sites today and they are listed below (map coming soon), beach seining is about repetition and each team member knowing where they should be during each segment.  There is definitely a trick to bringing in the nets, the lead lines along the bottom must be dragged in simultaneously while people manage the floats and create a high-line in-between the lead and float lines.

Project Begins March 25th 2012!

What I will be doing: Assisting in an assessment of habitat use by the fish community in the tidally-influenced areas of the Chehalis River estuary (Grays Harbor) and tributaries. The sampling effort will use fyke trapping and beach seining to capture, identify, measure, and release juvenile fish from March to June 2012. In addition, habitat assessments will also be made to identify areas for future habitat restoration projects to aid in salmon recovery in the Chehalis Basin.