Salmon Survey

Last week I took a trip with the fish biologist at the park Dave, to help him with a salmon survey on Copper Lake and Tanada Lake. We were delayed a day due to cloudy conditions, but eventually we were able to pack-up the float plane leave for Copper Lake. When we got to the lake Dave and I had our own cabins, so I put all of my things in the cabin. When I was about to head back out of the cabin I noticed this bucket with a little bit of water in it, and inside there was something dark. I looked at it a little closer and this is what I saw

that is a dead bat by the way. Um yeah… It must have fallen into the bucket and couldn’t get out. When I dumped it outside it had been in the water so long it just burst open when it hit the ground, it was pretty nasty.

At Copper Lake we collected flesh samples of salmon. Copper Lake is unique in that it has kokanee salmon, this is salmon that remains in the lake it was born into for its entire life. They don’t grow as large as the sockeye salmon that go out to the ocean for a few years. The park is interested to see how closely related the kokanee salmon are to the sockeye salmon in the lake, so it was up to us to collect DNA samples that could be compared. We just walked along the shore the first day and collected samples from fish that had washed up on shore. The next day we took a boat out to find fish that were floating on the lake. I had to scoop up the fish and put them in the boat.

Later in the day we were picked up by the float plane and taken to Tanada Lake which is not too far away from Copper. Luckily this time when I got into my cabin there wasn’t a dead bat, well at least one I found : )

At Tanada Lake we were still collecting dead salmon, but for this study we didn’t need good DNA we just needed the heads to be intake because we were collecting otolith bones from the fishes’ skulls. Otolith bones are two small bones that rest just underneath the brains, during the fish’s life the bones get larger forming distinct growth rings that can be used like growth rings on a tree. The whole point of collecting these bones it to see the relative age of the fish spawning in the lakes. Because these were just bones in the head, it really didn’t matter what the

rest of the fish looked like, or smelled like for that matter. I picked up some of the nastiest fish I have ever seen and then I just had to throw them in the boat. At points I was kneeling in a huge pile of rotting oozing fish. Luckily I had rubber gloves so my hands didn’t smell super nasty and Dave was the one to cut open the heads and get out the bones, I was tasked with opening and keeping track of the vials the bones were going to go into. Hey I wasn’t complaining, these fish were disgusting, I am glad it was windy because that would have been bad.

Snow has begun, ice was starting to form on
Tanada Lake : (

This was my last trip for the season, for the next 30 days I will be tasked with writing the end of year report and mounting collected plant specimens that are back logged from previous years. All in all it was a good last trip; I got to see a really clear night sky a couple of the nights, there were water fowl all over the place, and I saw my first caribou. Plus now I REALLY know I don’t want to be a fish biologist. : )

These salmon get some pretty nastly teeth when they are spawning

If you look closely you can see the age rings on each of the otolith bones

Marc and Me

The first week of September Marc came to visit me in Alaska. I have been looking forward to this for weeks and have been very excited as you can imagine. I picked him up in Anchorage at about 2 on Sept 1st and we headed to the Alyeska resort about a half an hour south of Anchorage. It was absolutely beautiful we had a great time. They had a great pool, awesome landscaping, and the hotel restaurant was wonderful.

The next day we made our way further south to the coastal city Seward. We went to the aquatic center, which was pretty cool. They take in rehab animals from the bay area and set them free when they get better, so we got to see all sorts of animals. Later that
night we took a little hike in Kenai Fjords National Park up to the Exit Glacier. I tried to get Marc to climb

These fish were super cool they held onto the glass
with their fins it was crazy

on it with me but there were signs saying not to go up there so Marc wouldn't let me go. Oh well, he missed out on an awesome experience. That night we tent camped in the park at their little campground. It was a pretty cool spot to camp, there weren't many people around which was a plus. The next morning we got up at 6:30am because I had a surprise event for Marc. I planned a sea kayaking trip to Caine's Head, which is an old WWII base. We kayaked to the beach and then took a hike short 2mi hike to the base. Our tour guide's name was Tramp he was really great and told us all sorts of stories about the stupid questions people ask him. (This is something every person working with tourists can understand.) One of my favorite ones was how people want to know when the smoked salmon run is...you know that is where you get smoked salmon from, right? ; ) We had a lot of fun. We saw a harbor seal, a sea otter, jumping silver salmon, and lots of sea birds.

Then it was off to Denali National Park and Preserve. It took us about 6hrs to get there from Seward (now that may seem like a lot, but in Alaska that really isn't that bad of a drive. For example it takes me 4hrs just to get to Anchorage.) We camped in the park upon arrival and tried to have a little fire, but for some reason the fire just wouldn't take well. The sky was really clear at this point and it was getting late so it just sucked all the heat away. I was freezing at this point so I just climbed into my sleeping bag and tried to think warm thoughts. But it was fine layers is the trick, and a really really nice sleeping bag. The next day Marc and I set off to look around the visitor center at the park and then onwards to a hike. We had lunch at the visitor center and this guy got all excited because I was wearing my MSU rowing jacket. He talked to us for awhile and when he was leaving he told us to have a good trip, make love, and stay together forever. Haha I didn't really know how to respond to that, um thank you? After that we took a hike to try and see Mt. McKinley. We had to hike up this little mountain side, or more like a tall hillside. Marc was struggling a little bit to get up the trail, but he did it eventually. I was so proud of him. Plus it was worth the hike up because we did get to see the mountain way off in the distance. Which apparently only about 30% of people who visit the park actually get to see. (Denali is so touristy, it was crazy. We saw more people in the morning just walking around the visitor center than I think I have seen come into Wrangell-St. Elias. I mean I don't really interact with guests here, but still. I can't even imagine what it would be like to work at Yellowstone, that would suck!)

Marc halfway up

Me halfway up

Same spot hahaha
I love you honey. (He is going to be so mad at me)

 

After our fun in Denali, it was off to boxtown just to hang around for a couple of days. We went fishing and one of my co-workers had a little hangout at her place, I cooked some salmon for Marc, and we watched some of the Office. All in all it was a really great vacation, I am so glad Marc was able to make it out here we had a lot of fun exploring Alaska together.

Return to Grizzly Lake

Peter let me use his fly fishing pole and show me how to fly fish

A few weeks ago Peter and I took a float plane to Grizzly Lake to do surveys for aquatic invasive plants. So in remembering how fricken cold I was the last time I was determined to be more prepared. I brought so many layers my pack was extremely heavy and full, but I was more than prepared. In actuality it was a really great week with super nice weather. We spent two days paddling around Grizzly Lake. We went fishing at the end of the work days and I caught several graylings, we only kept two for dinner one of the nights. But they were really good.

The third day we were picked up by the plane and dropped off at Copper Lake, which is a much larger lake nearby. We spent two days paddling around this lake looking for invasives. We didn't find any so that is good. On the last night there we went fishing again and I caught a good sized trout. I filleted it all by myself (this was the first time I have filleted a fish) and it actually turned out pretty well.

Then we tried to cook it...Yeah that could have went better. So Peter had this little piece of aluminum foil. We wrapped the fish up with some butter and seasonings. Then Peter made this little woven wooden structure to hold the fish up over the fire. I asked him if maybe we should soak the wood for awhile to prevent it from burning, to which he replied "We could, but it is sort of delicate." That should have been my first clue this wasn't going to turn out well, but alas I just brushed it off. So we put the fish on this little structure and Peter had me help to bring it over the fire. At this point it is cooking well and thinks look good. Then the foil starts to break open, because the fish is expanding slightly with being cooked. One side of the fish is getting close to being done, but the thicker meaty part is still very raw so Peter tries to flip the fish. That works for a little bit, but then one of the sticks in the woven holder falls and so does the fish, into the fire. Don't worry! all is still good, the foil is still covering most of the fish and only a few chunks of ash got on it; those can be picked off. So Peter decides we just need larger sticks to hold up the fish and takes some thicker pieces of wood and drapes those over the fire. At this point the foil is just falling apart everywhere. So he tries to put the fish on the three sticks without the foil. Well that didn't really work, because one of the pieces was nearing being done and the top half of the fillet (a.k.a the good meaty part) fell into the fire. There was no saving that piece. At that point little flies where flying everywhere biting us and trying to get to the fish. Eventually I just took the rest of the fish off of the fire cut it up into little chunks and threw it in this little pan I had and cooked it the rest of the way. Peter felt really bad about losing some of the fish, but honestly I wasn't even mad. We still got to eat plenty of fish, it was delicious, and it also makes for a good story : )