First Day in the Field

Learning how to properly load the trucks with all of the gear and equipment. Copyright PSRF/JanaS.
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This was our first day out in the field, but since it was a late survey day, we did not head out until after lunch time. First things first…emergency procedures and protocol, then a quick briefing on what to bring with us. The drive to the Slough was about 20 minutes through farm country and windy roads. When we arrived, we learned how to properly load the trucks with all of the equipment, then got suited up and headed down to the water, where we unloaded the stuff from the trucks onto the boats.

The mud pit at Pickle Island!! Copyright PSRF/JanaS.
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Our survey was completed at Pickle Island, named so for the Pickleweed that grows there. Once we got there, we literally fell into the mud…about knee high in it. We quickly learned that the best way to move around in it was on our knees, by sliding on our bellies or scooting on our behinds.

Our first task was to unload the water crafts, then unfurl the 100 yard set net. As volunteers, our duties today were more to observe and see how things run, rather than get in the true action. Some of these tasks were to monitor the tide and temperature levels, guard the holding pens and record data, while the researchers caught the animals, transferred them into the holding pens and handled them during measurements. This was especially necessary for today, since most of the animals present and caught were bat rays, the most dangerous of the 7 species we will be looking at.

Sean captures a bat ray from the set net. Copyright PSRF/JanaS.
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All in all, we caught approximately 20 bat rays in the area, in the two hour period. There were also many “bounces”, which is when the animal hits the net, but escapes before we can get to it. Each time a ray was caught (by Sean), they were transferred to a holding pen. Just when we thought that bat rays were all there were in the area, and just as we were bringing in the net, we also came upon a shovelnose guitarfish. That was pretty exciting.

Once we finished the captures for the day, the measurements of each animal were taken. This included identifying them as male or female and measuring total length as well as disc length. Most of the rays were babies, but there were a couple of rather large ones, as well (estimated at close to 100 pounds). Once this data was recorded, each animal was then released back into the Slough.

Leon transfers a baby bat ray from the floaty pen into the holding pen to await measurements. Copyright PSRF/JanaS.
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We had to pack up all of our belongings and the equipment , and by this point, the tide had risen close to 30 centimeters, so what was once one island mass, had turned into 3 smaller land pieces and our only dry area was rather confined.

By the time we got back to land, unloaded all of our stuff, washed the boats and gear, and started heading back to the house, it was close to 9 pm. We were all very tired, but also hungry. Pizza arrived around 11 pm.

The day was very exciting and interesting , however, my time was marred by the fact that some chemical in my sunscreen really irritated my eyes. They were burning and watering the entire time out on the survey and were extremely sensitive to the glare from the sun. This limited my view of the goings on, but did not slow me down or hinder me doing my main task of reading tide/temp lines or recording measurements. I’ll have to figure out what to do when we go out the next several days, so that this is not a recurring problem…