Saturday, April 5, 2008

Sturgeon Patrol Update 1

This week in sturgeon patrol I was expecting to receive an email from the coordinator of the program concerning details about our volunteering. The schedule was to be posted by April 1 but was not posted. I received an email that information would be sent out by Friday afternoon concerning the missing information and it still did not come. I did find out some information about what we are going to be doing from some who are involved while I was making phone calls. It sounds as though Chad Leanna and I will need to arrive a little before 7:00 pm where we will be briefed about what we need to do. This will include making sure people don’t tamper with the fish while they spawn. The locations we will be watching include shallow stretches of the river as well as some commonly used rock piles that are popular for the sturgeon. The shift will be from 7 to 7 and the program will provide us with 3 separate meals including dinner when we arrive, a midnight snack, and a breakfast before we leave in the morning. We signed up for 3 different night shifts on April 23, 24, and 30. Hopefully by next week the dnr will have a schedule out that will let us know when we will be watching the sturgeon. The reason for the delay on scheduleing could be because of the weather because the movement of the sturgeon as well as when they spawn is directly dependant on the weather and the water temperature. If the conditions are not right then the fish will not move up into the river.

2 comments:

Amy Simmons said...

I thought it was a good idea for you to post the reasons why the schedule might not have posted. You made the best out of a difficult situation and although you haven't even begun your project i've already learned a little bit. I'm interested to hear what will come of all of this.

Liz Westberg said...

Ahh, the famed promptness of the DNR... still, one can't blame them. They are over worked, understaffed and underfunded. From experience with trout, I understand that illegal collecting (especially of females full of eggs can be a problem, and it is really unfortunate that the DNR needs to have people out there to make sure thay doesn't happen. Still, this sounds like a great opportunity to witness spawning up close. Good luck!