Permits: EVER-2010-SIC-0007 & ESA-13330
Sunday January 24, 2010
Leave Panama City around 5:30 am. Arrive in Everglades City around 5:30 pm. Time to get to know the two new interns. Both are very chatty. Plus, my good friend and former technician who has since moved on to bigger and better things (graduate school!) is along for the ride this year. We pick her up in Tallahassee. Twelve hours on the road, stopping only for gas and our designated time-to-switch-drivers and lunch break at the truckstop Arby’s on Exit 358. Time flies. Still, the last 45 minutes once we get off I-75 are brutal. Check into the Captain’s Table Hotel, feeling like we were just here last month. Order take out from the Everglades Seafood Depot and watch the Saints beat the Vikings (barely!), securing their first-ever trip to the Stupid Bowl. Made plans to get on the water by sun-up and fish in Everglades National Park.
Monday January 25, 2010
Two dead boat batteries and a serious cold front baring down on us. Gary Thompson at the Tru-Value Hardware store in town helped us out tremendously with our battery issue. Said his family has been in Everglades City for over 100 years. Got his card in case we ever need a charter fisherman. Launched at Chokoloskee Island and an hour later than planned and started fishing right as the weather arrived. Hauled the gear quickly and hauled ass back to the dock. Waited out the weather back at the apartment, having lunch. Back on the water by 2 pm. Three sets. No catch. Water temperature is 23C, much warmer than expected. While scouting the site at Mud Bay, my technician and the interns thought they saw a sawfish. After much excitement and shush-ing, it turned out to be a stick. Oh, well. The recent cold front has lots of critters amiss. Several dead tarpon (Megalops atlanticus) and catfish floating around, lots of black and turkey vultures in the skies, and the layer of trees (either white mangrove, Laguncularia racemosa, or buttonwood, Conocarpus erectus) directly behind the mangrove that *can be submerged in water (red mangrove, Rhizophora mangle, or black mangrove, Avicennia germinans) had reddish-brownish dead-looking leaves. Off the water by 4:30 pm. Prepped Crawfish Étouffée for dinner and then went for a short run. Thankfully, the mosquito population has been kulled by the cold, too. This will be a better year.
Tuesday January 26, 2010
Chilly, early morning and driving down Hwy 41 to Jouney’s “Don’t Stop Believing” with the sunrise in the rear-view. Everyone singing at the top of their lungs. Launched at Port of the Islands. The Mustang bibs and coats are keeping us warm. Spent all day on the water in Faka Union Bay in the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge. Beautiful day. Winds out of the north, blowing all the water out of the park and making the low tides even lower. Even after only two days, the crew feels very comfortable. They are loud, but work well together. Fished the spoil island at the end of Faka Union Canal on the incoming then outgoing tide. Everyone had a good laugh while getting stuck up their thighs in the mud. Two crevalle jack (Caranx hippos), one snook (Centropomus undecimalis), and one hardhead catfish (Arius felis). No sawfish. Water temperature is 21C. Long, slow trip back up Faka Union Canal against an outgoing tide. Both interns are avid birders and I’m not. Can you believe I got through both undergrad and graduate school without one bird class? I’ve begun a list of bird species we’re seeing. Afternoon caffeine-fix for all. ACDC’s “Thunderstruck” for the drive back. Windows down, spotting alligators in the canal beside the road. Bought a Tilly Hat and Chums for my sunglasses. Prepped Sauage Ragu for dinner. Let the sauce simmer while we took a walk and the sun went down. Tomorrow we go back to Mud Bay to range test the tag and receivers.
Wednesday January 27, 2010
8:30 am – Stuck on a mud/sandbar in Chokoloskee Bay. NE wind. Upcoming full moon. Low, low tide. Missed the channel by 20 feet. Marked the GPS.
10:45 am – Unstuck. Woot!
11:30 am to 1:00 pm – Range testing the VR2 receivers using a Lotec tag. All up and down Hurddles Creek, in Mud Bay, and around the corner. Tide so low that entire Mud Bay was dry.
1:30 pm to 3:45 pm – Two sets at Turner River site on the incoming tide and beginning of outgoing tide. No catch.
4:30 pm – Off the water.
5:30 pm to bedtime – Grocery store. Short run. 3 beers. Chili for dinner. Telemetry fail! Internet Café (Aka, the hotel’s lobby). State of the Union Address.
Thursday January 28, 2010
Another low, low tide at mid-morning and NE wind making it impossible to leave the Chokoloskee Island launch before 11:15 am. Once on the water, made our way up Lopez River and back into House Hammock Bay, an area we didn’t fish last year (Adventure!). Dropped the nets on a small shoal between two mangrove islands at SE corner of the bay and fished entire incoming tide. Potentially good habitat for sawfish, but no catch today. Got another set at Mud Bay on the last of the incoming tide on the way back to the dock. Nothing there either. Prepped Wedding Soup for dinner and went for a walk as the sun went down. Noticed that the trailer tires looked low and decided to check them again first thing in the morning. One of the interns is working on a sawfish trip-themed song to the tune of “If you like Piña Coladas.” We won’t be fishing the Goodland/Grocery Creek site this trip. It is just too skinny back there right now.
Friday January 29, 2010
Filled trailer tires to 35 psi each. On the water with sunrise to beat the low, low mid-morning tide. Two sets with remaining outgoing tide at Turner River site. Quiet. Smokey. Chilly. Awesome. A kayak-er stops by to tell us that there’s a dead manatee up around the corner into Hurddles Creek. We write down the coordinates and make a note to call dispatch once we’re off the water. With the incoming tide, make 3 sets at shoal in NE corner of second bay in Cross Bays system. This is a place that Mote Marine Labs indicated as potential habitat. Super silty and green algae everywhere. Including the prop! While nets soak, we brainstorm some more about how we want to set up the receivers and make a note to get in touch with those that have successfully completed telemetry in this area before. No need to reinvent the wheel. Mullet (Mugil cephalus) and hardhead catfish. Caught a glimpse of what looked like a southern stingray (Dasyatis americana). No sawfish. Off the water by 4:30 pm. Short run. Took the crew out to dinner on Marco Island to celebrate a week well-fished. The Crazy Flamingo. Pitchers of beer and blackened fish sandwiches. Another joy of being the PI/FPC is also getting to be DD. Driving back on Hwy 41 completely sober with the almost full moon lighting the way, listening to my half-drunk crew sing at the top of their lungs to 80s Hair Bands. Good times.
Saturday January 30, 2010
Packed and in the truck by 5:15 am. Cracker Barrel in Naples by 6:30 am. One of the crew is not feeling well, launching me into Mom Mode. This is no hangover. She’s got chills and sweats and stomach cramps. Doesn’t eat much breakfast. I give her some Tylenol and she sleeps all the way to Tampa. Lunch in Gainesville. My technician and I are maxed out on Arby’s, but vow to find a better Chick-fil-A than the one we stop at in the Oaks Mall food court. Everyone agrees that we’re not ready for the stimulation overload of reality and take our lunch back out to the truck to eat in semi-silence. This time yesterday we were enjoying the silence of bird watching in a National Park. The sick one is feeling somewhat better after some chicken soup and another couple Tylenol. By the time we drop her off in Tallahassee, she is just about right as rain. We’re back to the lab by 6:30 pm. And thus, January.
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