The Final Days

Over the last month my time has been filled with more work and fishing. Work has brought me south once again to Prince of Whales Island where we sampled about a dozen sites for our fish sampling and habitat surveys. While there we were blessed with more awesome weather for working. Sunny and warm dry weather perfect for working... but not so good for the staging salmon. Rivers this summer have been lower than usual making is more difficult for the salmon to return to their natal watersheds to spawn. The first day on Prince of Whales Island, the area received heavy amounts of precipitation causing the streams and rivers to rise and in return a massive influx of pink, chum and coho salmon who had been waiting for a rainstorm like this, surged into the rivers. As the water levels receded what I saw was something too remarkable for words. Thousands upon thousands of salmon stacked up in the rivers to the point where the bottom could not even be seen. I have never been witness to such a profound biological phenomenon first-hand. It truly is amazing to stand by one of these rivers and watch as thousands of these fish return to the streams they were laid as eggs years before to complete their life cycle. The seemingly unending flow of migrating fish from downstream up through pools, riffles and waterfalls, jumping and swimming against the current to fulfill their life's purpose and spawn only to shortly thereafter die completing their life cycle. To see this happen there is no wondering how these trees get so huge or how these forest sustain such a high biomass. The salmon here are a keystone species that every single living organism in these forests rely on in some way for the energy that they provide to the waters and surrounding forests and animals within. Seeing this phenomenon really reiterates the importance of the work that is done by the people of the Forest Service and other government agencies who I work with on a daily basis to properly protect and manage this ecosystem. I am so fortunate to have had this opportunity, to help work toward the efforts for future success of the fisheries, which in turn gives rise to the success of everyone and everything that relies so heavily on them. Not many people get to see and do what I have done this summer on the Nation's largest national forest. Although I did not see all of the 17.6 million acres of the Tongass National Forest I saw a whole lot, and I took none of it for granted. As I leave here, the past week of rain, and rising rivers have me feeling hopeful that just as the salmon return, I too will one day have the opportunity to come back to this special place in our country. Many great friends have been made and many awesome experiences have been had, all will be greatly missed.

As for a fishing report, I have in the past month wrapped up the grand slam of salmon fishing here in Alaska by catching king, coho, chum, sockeye and pink salmon all on my flyrod. Add to that a multitude of sea-run cutthroat and dolly varden and you could definitely say that southeast Alaska is a fisherman's dream location. I will be leaving here with a cooler loaded with fresh and smoked salmon to supplement my college diet of ramen noodles and rice and beans. Here are a few pictures to wrap things up, enjoy!

 Pink Salmon

 Sockeye Salmon

Coho Salmon

 Chum Salmon

King Salmon

Goodbye Petersburg you will be missed.

Salmon and Bears

Work lately has consisted of much more backpacking, camping, fish trapping and habitat surveys. Recently, most of the work I have been doing has been by way of boat and helicopters on Kupreanof Island here in southeast Alaska. Outside of work the recreational activities have been awesome. The salmon fishing is really starting to pick up as the sockeye are tailing out, the pink and chum salmon fishing is only getting better! On my last hitch in Kake, a small town on Kupreanof Island, I was able to witness a huge chum salmon run and many bears taking advantage of this feeding opportunity. On the ferry ride back from the to Petersburg I was witness to dozens of feeding and breaching humpback whales and orcas. Aside from mostly salmon fishing, I have been able to catch quite a few dungeness crab. With a diet of crab and salmon my food situation has greatly improved from the $90 a week living stipend I am on. When I am not working, as previously stated, a lot of my time is spent fishing with some of the other seasonal workers living here and working for the Forest Service, we also have done a lot of kayaking, and hiking. Next week, I will be off to Prince of Whales Island to sample some watersheds down in that region of the Tongass National Forest. As always, a few pictures from recently.

 Pink Salmon

 Sockeye Salmon

 Chum salmon spawning

 Black bear coming down to the river

 Black bear chasing down chum salmon

 Got one!

 Chum salmon spawning

 Sunset in Kake

 Steelhead

 Cutthroat

Coho salmon parr

Petersburg!

Well, it's been a while since my last post and a lot of new friends have been made, and many new experiences have been had. I left Craig and came to Petersburg, Alaska a few weeks ago to start my new project for the rest of the summer. I'm working with a fisheries biologist on a project that monitors the management indicator species of fish within the different watersheds here in southeast Alaska. We go out to a many different streams and rivers all over the southeast on many of the different islands and place minnow traps for an hour and a half in a certain section of stream and do a total of 3 sets of the traps. Each time, the amount of fish we catch decreases and by using these numbers they can be plugged into an equation to accurately determine the amount of the different species within the river system. The idea behind all of this is to see the effects, if any, of the forest service's management practices in the forests surrounding the rivers. Forests and wood play a critical role in the health of the rivers and the aquatic life within them. Species that we trap include cutthroat trout, dolly varden char, slimy sculpin, coho salmon parr and steelhead. Along with the trapping we also conduct habitat surveys and measurements of the stream size, pool size, riffle size, gravel size, amount of woody debris present and a few other things. It is really amazing to be able to work out in the field with very knowledgeable individuals within my field of study. It is also a blessing to almost never have to work inside and be able to travel and camp all throughout the southeast Alaska region. Working alongside bears, wolves, deer, moose and the many other animals that I see (or see tracks of) on a daily basis is a pretty spectacular thing. Outside of work I have met many new friends and people that also live in the forest service housing who have many of the same interests as I. We all spend a lot of time fishing, hiking, kayaking and camping. Basically heaven. I've been out king salmon fishing to no avail but the sea-run dolly varden are massive. The pink and chum salmon runs are to being here in the next month and soon the rivers will all be choked with thousands of fish.

 22" Dolly Varden

 Small cutthroat

 Loading up the floatplane in Thorne Bay on Prince of Whales Island.

 Some nice flounder fishing

 Another big dolly about 21"

 Kayaking over to Kupreanof Island from Petersburg.

 Sea lions hanging out

 Dolly Varden in the fresh water

 Another dolly varden

 A porcupine we ran into out working

Unloading the helicopter

Craig, Alaska... living in the woods

Well after 10 days living out of a tent in the middle of a rainforest I definitely learned a lot about how to live in a perpetual state of wetness. I came to an understanding that the word dry is a relative term out here. If it's not dripping then its is dry. I also learned what it feels like to have over 100 bug bites on one hand, and finally I learned that with enough boredom and free time people do actually read the writing on the packaging of disposable earplugs. Even if the writing isn't in English. Even though having perpetually wet feet and clothes, constantly being swarmed by biting insects and working like a dog for 10-12 hours a day, I had an awesome time. Working with my supervisor Rob, along with 3 other forest service employees was a great learning experience. I went into the woods not really knowing what to expect but I had a better time than I could've imagined, given the circumstances. Walking into the woods and having to chase a bear away from our gear right away really put into perspective how wild it is out here. We were completely out of any cell phone or radio contact, and the only contact we had with the outside world was a spotty connection with a failing satellite phone.
So we drove about two and a half hours by car trailering and then another drove another 30 minutes by boat to the mouth of Sunny Creek, the river we would be working on. From there, Rob and I made 2 trips to the spot about 2 miles up into the woods by the fish pass that we would be working on. After a couple brats on the fire, I was ready for bed at around 8 from that night on. The next day was full of chainsaws and helicopters clearing trees and slinging in camp gear and new personnel. The days flew by as we dug and drilled out a couple feet of gravel and clay to get to bedrock above the fish pass. Filling a couple hundred sand bags with gravel to make a dam and stop the water was almost as fun as emptying them all. From there we drilled 4 foot holes in the bedrock to plant the rebar for the concrete walls and then came the forming and pouring of the walls. Before anyone expected, we were done with the remodeling of the fish pass. The end goal of this fish pass is to aid Coho, Pink and Chum salmon in traveling up previously impassable falls, increasing spawning grounds along the river and overall increasing the numbers of adults. Our modifications were made to hopefully stop the content plugging of the fish ladder during high flows. Below are a few pictures of the project along the way. Looking forward to some time off and hitting the sockeye hard and hopefully getting out after some king salmon and halibut!

Leaving Sitka: May 31, 2013

Well, my time here in Sitka is coming to an end today. I fly down south to Craig, AK on Prince of Whales Island for the next month before I leave for Petersburg. This last week has consisted of the rest of my training and of course some more fishing. Boat safety, bear safety, and rifle safety and qualification are just a few of the things i've spent the last week doing. The coolest thing by far was the rifle qualifying. For that we were required to shoot .375cal. Holland&Holland bolt action rifles at 3 different targets of bears at three different distances. There was a limit of ten seconds to get the rifle from slung over your shoulder to firing 3 accurate shots, and hitting a specific area on the target. Very fun gun to shoot. I've got a picture of one of the bullets below.

After I fly down to Craig today I will be moving all of my gear into the bunkhouse i'll be living in there and tomorrow I head out into the woods for 12 days to work on a fish-pass on Sunny Creek. I'll be doing rebar and concrete work as well as drilling rock with a Pionjar rock drill (essentially a jackhammer that rotates). The weather looks great for up here, mid 50s with a mix of showers and sun. I'm really looking forward to getting some work done and just getting out into the woods, and sleeping out of a tent.
Its a little bittersweet to be leaving Sitka. It really is a great town that I wish I could've spent some more time in. I'll definitely miss my bunkmates and the people I've been living and working with over the last couple weeks, but I am really excited to be experiencing different parts of southeast Alaska. Many more pictures to come next time.

Picture above is of 9 bald eagles in one tree from last night. Quite a sight for my last night in Sitka.

Sitka: May 27, 2013

The past week has been filled with training 8:00-5:00, fishing in the evenings and just trying to enjoy the seemingly endless sunshine up here. The beautiful weather has made the days of training inside a bit difficult to bear but when its light out for about 20 hours a day there is plenty of time to spend outside. Fishing down on the docks has started picking up a bit with many people coming into Sitka this week for the king salmon fishing derby. I’ve been lucky enough to hook into some larger dolly varden, small cod, more rockfish, greenling and small coho salmon on the fly rod. The past few mornings have been extremely low tides revealing vast stretches of the ocean floor and all of its inhabitants. Lots of sea stars and anemones could be seen all over the rocks. It’s pretty cool to see the tide rise and fall 16 feet twice in a day. Halibut tacos last night for dinner with most of the Forest Service employees were great. Other than that, things have been pretty quiet and relaxing here and I’m just trying to enjoy every day while I can. The bald eagle sightings never get old here in Sitka, only 5 more weeks here then I’m off to Petersburg. I'd add more photos but the internet connection here at McDonalds is sub-par to i'll have to find a better connection for next time.

 Nice view of Mount Edgecumbe, a dormant volcano, across the the bay.

 Sunsets in Sitka like this have become standard...

 A view to the south of Sitka at the mountains.

 One of the many small coho salmon i've been hooking into.

 Some nice sea-run dolly varden for dinner with a few of the baby cohos that were hooked deep.

 A purple sunstar moving down the beach after being stranded at low tide.

 One of the many different colored sea stars around on the rocks at low tide.

Showing off a bit of a chaco sandal tan line.

Bald eagle at the tide line searching for food.