- 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.
Day 2: March 26th:
-Today was much smoother running then the first and we got out to the first site around 8am, the weather turned for the worse after the first site but began to clear up for the remainder of the afternoon. The best site today was at Damon Point just south of Ocean Shores, also it is the only area of cobble beach within Grays Harbor. This area is also known to have high animal abundance due to the large influx of available food.
-Most of what we are catching this time of year are small juveniles 30mm-to 55mm in length and consists of chum, coho and Chinook salmon along with various smelts and sculpins.
-By April and May the chum salmon would have reached around 65mm and will have vacated the estuary.
-Field work is not just hard work there are also opportunities to do some crabbing, we set our crab pots out for over 12 hrs and unfortunately only caught 2 of length males (6in shell diameter).
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What is beach seining?: Basically it involves anchoring a large net to the beach and tying the other end to a boat; the boat then drags the net first straight then in a semi circle where the lead line is then disconnected from the boat and picked up by waiting workers. This end is then dragged quickly onto land to close off any chance of escape. The bottom section of the net is then slowly pulled in while maintaining the top portion of the net slightly taunt creating a "wall". The to bottom portions are brought together and the trap animals are then carefully transported to a holding tank to be counted, measured and then let free.
Here is a 5min video demonstrating beach seining: (Note: This is a crew from Port Moody, BC)
Sites of Beach Seining:
-I should have a map of Gray Harbor and the locations of all of these sites up within a day or so, I am just waiting for permission to use the maps.
March 25th
1. Cow Point
2. Moon Island
3. Rennie Island
4. Elliott Slough
March 26th
1. Sterns Bluff
2. Goose Island
3. Sand Island
4. Damon Point
If there is anything anyone would like to know more about please let me know!
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