Friday August 20, 2010So, it’s me, the interns, the graduate student, and the head co-cheese this trip. I don’t really know what to expect from the head co-cheese, but it can’t all be bad … he did drive the first leg.
Saturday August 21, 2010My notes are a mess. Written in the margins, line drawings of sets, set direction, and way-points, arrows to opposite pages. Good lord. But let me back up …
We launched at Port of the Islands and fished out at Hog Key first thing on an incoming tide. We were looking for that little female we tagged in June. No luck. The heat was blistering, the sun brutal. No breeze this morning. Certainly the entire week cannot be this way. We’ll melt.
We moved to Faka Union Bay with the incoming tide. We spotted an untagged STS the moment we pulled up to the west-side. Got the nets in the water on both sides of the island and took benthic samples. The graduate student dropped the hydrophone in the water and began listening for the two males we tagged here in July.
At 12:35 we caught, tagged, sampled, and released a male YOY STS (SRX85) on the west-side of the spoil island. After release, he swam north and south along the west-side of the island for about an hour. We moved the nets to around Faka Union for a few sets and then came back to see if we could hear him again. Yup. Same spot, swimming north and south along the west bank of the spoil island and periodically stopping to rest. We listened to him do this for another hour. Salinity 15.1. Temperature 32. It was 17:00 and we had to get home ahead of the weather.
No luck with that. Got poured on going up Faka Union Canal on an outgoing. Took FOR-EV-ER.
Tonight we toasted to finding, tagging, and tracking another STS. Plus, it is the return of football (even if is it pre-season). I fall asleep listening to local commercials and the excited chatter of my crew.
Sunday August 22, 2010We were back in Faka Union today, trying to catch another one and listening for the other tagged three.
No wind again this morning. The head co-cheese got out the push poll and moved us north to south along the island while the graduate student listened.
08:26 – Faint signal near southwest-side of the spoil island using the multi-directional hydrophone.
08:32 – Faint signal near northwest-side of the spoil island using the directional hydrophone.
09:15 – Lost signal.
Fished the rest of the day in several different locations here and there in both Faka Union and Fakahatchee Bay. Came back to the west-side of the spoil island around 15:30 with the high high slack tide.
15:40 – Threw anchor near northwest corner of the spoil island, close to cut-through. Using the directional hydrophone.
16:04 – Picked up a fairly strong signal every 4 seconds.
16:09 – Lost signal.
16:11 – Picked up signal again. North end of the island near the cut-through.
Then, we began to hear the signal and lose the signal every few minutes – like the animal was sticking its head out of the mangroves and then moving back in. He acted this way for about an hour. In and out. In and out. We started the steam back at 17:20.
Instant replay of yesterday. Rain, and lots of it coming back up Faka Union Canal with the outgoing tide. Misery.
Chicken tetrazzini for dinner.
Monday August 23, 2010Rain delay this morning. No worries. The weather should all get out of here by noon and there’s an incoming high-high all afternoon.
The graduate student went back to sleep. The interns are reading and inter-netting. The head co-cheese proclaims he is cooking tonight and heads off the Naples to buy groceries. I am at the kitchen table trying to fill in the gaps in my field notes from the past few days, but it is so quiet in the apartment that I can barely keep my eyes open. I make another cup of coffee, check the weather, and settle down to my latest read – A Game of Thrones.
On the water by 11:30, cleaning telemetry station in the rain by 11:45. Off the water by 14:30. That must be some sort of new record. We were busting ass. The rain finally clears and the remainder of the day is overcast and cool(er).
We hit the pool when we get back. The head co-cheese leaves early to begin dinner. Oh, and what a dinner it turned out to be. Tuna dip and lime daiquiris for starters. Bolognaise and a nice red wine for the main course. Bananas Foster for dessert. I fear the crew is being spoiled.
Watched
Back to the Future, pretty much quoted the entire movie.
Tuesday August 24, 2010Adventure!
Slight hiccup in getting on the water this morning. Had to replace the battery in the Lopez River HOBO (again!) and the hardware store did not open until 08:00.
On the water by 08:30. Fishing Mud Bay in Everglades National Park on an outgoing tide by 08:45.
The head co-cheese takes out his fly-fishing rod and walks the flats, watching the nets while the rest of the crew naps, reads, and has breakfast. It is overcast and so very quiet.
At 10:00, the head co-cheese gives the graduate student a fly-fishing lesson a la
A River Runs Through It and while she practices he checks the net on the west-side of the mangrove island. A bit of excitement to wake everyone up as he comes back with a YOY bull shark.
So, that happens. Then, the graduate student goes back to loading and tossing the fly-rod. The interns read and watch her. I begin to doubt that we’ll ever catch a STS in the park. Time passes slowly.
I must’ve dosed off as I am startled awake by the head co-cheese screaming WE GOT ONE! I snap awake and realize that he is on the west-side of the island, calling for help. The interns take off with the dip net and the graduate student and I stay back to get all the tags and sampling bits ready. It is 11:40.
They come back around the corner and she’s a beautiful 120 cm STL YOY. The first in the array. And a girl. Pure awesomeness. She’s chill while we work her over, tagging and measuring and photographing. As we get ready to release her, the graduate student gets the hydrophone ready and I grab the camera. I film the release and here comes the first active track in the park. Woot. Yeah, yeah, I know you gotta throw out the first 24-36 hours to account for stress, but whatevs. She’s tagged now and I’m stoked again … stoked like I haven’t been since I worked on my Master’s thesis. We call her Eve.
In all the excitement, we did not recognize a storm blowing up until we hear the thunder. We watch it for a bit, then pick up the nets and move to Turner River with the incoming tide. In a couple hours another storm blows up. We moved the nets again – this time to the mouth of the Lopez River. We fish there for the remainder of the incoming and pull the nets at 17:00.
BBQ chicken sandwiches and french fries for dinner. The head co-cheese makes dessert again. We watch a
The Office marathon on TBS. I fall asleep early.
Wednesday August 25, 2010Day 5
We’re back in the park today instead of Goodland, trying to catch another sawfish. The head co-cheese wants one more. We put the nets at Turner River for the outgoing tide in the morning.
At noon-thirty just as we’re pulling up to move, a park ranger comes around the bend. He flags us down and starts chatting. He’s young and new to the place – just relocated from Florida Bay. I invite him to come with us to Mud Bay as we’re headed that way to try and find Eve, the sawfish we tagged yesterday.
We throw anchor near the Mud Bay 3 acoustic station and, as the graduate student puts the multi-directional hydrophone in the water, the head co-cheese begins to field the ranger’s questions. See? This is precisely why it is good to have him around. You know, in addition to kick-ass dessert every night. Unfortunately, we hear nothing and after about 35 minutes the ranger’s got to get back to work. We exchange cards and he says that he’d love to have a beer with us the next time we’re in town. Poor dude, there are very few chicks in Everglades City under 60.
We pull anchor, set the nets on both sides of the mangrove island, and begin push-polling a transect around the corner on the west-side of the island. I make a note to bring a trolling motor on the next trip.
13:52 – Strong signal. 25
o49.159 n 81
o19.688 w.
14:07 – 94 db. 300 degrees. 25
o49.151 n 81
o19.746 w.
14:09 – 100 db. Same spot.
She is in the corner around the bend on the west side of the bay in a little hole that we’ve fished only once and she’s just hanging out doing that thing the other one did – poking its head in and out every few minutes.
We pull the nets, catching nothing and go back to listening to her sitting in one spot. At 17:00 we pull anchor and head back to the dock. This is a start and we all begin speculating on what the receivers will tell us next month.
Nachos. So good.
Thursday August 26, 2010Up early and breaking tradition. We seek out an IHOP in Naples before getting on the road. The head co-cheese drives the first leg, taking the Sunshine Skyway. He must be getting antsy because he drove like a maniac through Tampa traffic. Still, he got us safely to Ocala for lunch.
The rest of the trip, I drive. I don’t remember much of it. It all starts to run together at this point.
We drop the graduate student off in Tally in the pouring rain and get back to the lab before dark. The interns and I clean the boat and put away the gear right away as we all plan to take tomorrow off.
Well, that's all for August. We made it. And, honestly, I think this was the best trip so far.
