Algae Arms & Food Shooters

Alright, before I get into Algae Arms & Food Shooters, I just want to say something. I'm not saying this so I can hear a bunch of nagging and stuff but to... emphasize something. I got a bit sunburned today on my face and arms. I repeat, NO NAGGING... no "oh you're fair skinned..." blah blah... I know all that. My point is that THE SUN WAS OUT AND I WASN'T COVERED FROM HEAD TO TOE WITH CLOTHING!!! Anyhow, I'll get into how great the weather was today in a few... :-)

Soooo I got a email from one of my ADORING FANS today bugging me about how it's been a week since my last blog. WEEEEELLLL... sorry about that. I'm in Takatz 4 days a week so there's really nothing I can do about the lack of reading material for you. :-D Sorry... Takatz goes until the end of May or early June so it's going to be like that until then.

Alright, to get you up-to-date on my week. Sunday at Takatz was awful! Alright so just the weather was awful... started off as rain... ended up SNOWING! UGHH... gross. Then it was this weird mix of rain and snow... blah. Monday... can't even really remember. It rained too. Around 1pm, Adam and I decided to take a ride out towards Chatham Strait to check out the water and to pull up the crab pot. We got like 6 crabs... On the way carrying them to the house where Adam was going to put them in the bucket, one of the crabs pinched me with his snapper! HA HA I had gloves on and these crabs aren't super strong but I felt it... it was kind of funny actually! Anyhow, Tuesday and Wednesday though... UHHHH-MAZING! Great days... when the weather is great, Takatz is great! It makes feeding nice... and it makes the downtime at Takatz great. Both days I spent the afternoon laying on some wooden palettes reading.... trying to pretend I was sunbathing on the beach in Florida. I mean, it wasn't THAT hard... laying on the palettes, looking out onto the water, and it was warm. So what if I was wearing jeans and long underwear and all that and it was probably 50 AT MOST, but it was nice. :-D

Today I worked here at the hatchery. The place seemed deserted today though! Adam and Dean are in Takatz, Dan and Deena have been in Sitka for a few days, Branden and Sarah took off a few days ago because they are getting married!!!, and I think Shannon is even gone! So that left me, Scott, and Angie to tend to the fish. It seemed like EVERYTHING needed to be fed today too. I feel like I worked my butt off today! Angie worked with all the fish here on land... Scott and I were out on the water.

Like last week, Scott and I fed the chum. They have to be fed 6 times a day so we fed them first thing, then we "pulled some nets." The nets get pretty gunky with algae and if the holes in the nets get blocked, the water can't get through to give the fish fresh water. So we pulled up the net on one side so the algae part is out of the water and so it can dry. Then it is dropped back into the water block-free tomorrow. Well we did 5 nets... then it was time to feed again... then we did 5 more. It's hard work... the nets are heavy and wet and slimy with algae. From pinching the nets to hard with my fingers, if I press on my fingernails, it hurts. Ever do anything where the tips of your fingers hurt? It's weird. As we came in for lunch after the 3rd feeding, I noticed the backs of my arms were green from playing in algae. :-D The smell of the algae reminded me of my clam-raising project in college. We fed them algae and it's that exact smell.

So after lunch, we fed the chum, then came back and loaded these contraptions onto Scott's boat and over to the Chinook pens. Feeders... Food Shooters, if you will. :-) Last time I sort of talked about the chinook... because you all were wondering. And probably whatever I told you, I now realized was wrong. Today was the first time I've been to the chinook pens. There are only 10 net pens of fish... I thought they were the size of the Coho in the round ponds... 3-4 inches long. NOOO... These babies are big. Probably twice the size! 6-7 inches maybe... I had no idea! Scott said last October they were the same size as the Coho are now. These fish are going on 2 years old I believe. Anyhow, so I was ready to have my first experience feeding them... and then Scott tells me I am also going to have my first experience using the FOOD SHOOTER! I saw one of these things in motion when we took our tour of Medveije way back in February and it's pretty cool. You load food into this bin (we loaded 2 bags but you could probably load 3), start up the motor, point the tube and SHOOT! Air shoots the food out. It's pretty cool. And feeding the Chinook at the size they are is pretty cool too! They were jumpin out of the water all crazy... way more active than any of the smaller sized fish I've fed. If I would have had my camera, I would have taken a video.

Anyhow, once that was done, we headed back over to feed the chum, then right back to the Chinook pens to pull up a net there. Basically for the same reason.... however, since the chinook are larger, the holes in the net are larger too. Even though algae still gunks them up, Kelp (seaweed) claims residency on the nets! So before Branden left, he was pulling these nets up and replacing them with another net and then washing the net he pulled out. I haven't seen it done but this entails pulling the net up pretty high, then taking the other (clean) net and somehow moving it under the net that is in now. Then dropping that top net and pulling it out once that bottom net has been connected... can't let the fish escape. Hopefully that makes sense? So we pulled this net up and Scott said it really wasn't all that bad, but there was ALOT of kelp on it! Actually, we pulled it up so the kelp was out of the water and it looked sort of cool with all of it connected on there. Scott said it looked like it had grown hair. I want to take a picture but... who knows if I'll get out there tomorrow. We got that done and went right back over to the chum pens for the last feeding.

I'm BEAT! We were non-stop ALL DAY! But the weather was great... normally the mornings feel cold but it warms up. Not really this morning. I had my winter hat off before I had even finished feeding a few pens! The fleece pullover was off as soon as we started pulling up nets. It was nice to shed layers! The sleeves were rolled up almost all day... which is where I got some sun. It barely even looks burnt... just like I got some color. :-) It was a great day to be in Alaska!

On a side note, Dean will be leaving us. He told me last week that he took a job up in Kodiak, which is where he came from. Not sure what he'll be doing or why he's leaving, but there is a girl coming to replace him in a few days. She'll be down in Takatz with Adam and I probably starting Thursday. It'll be sad to see him go... he's taught me alot. I'm just sad they couldn't have found a young guy to replace him! ;-) he he he

SHOUT OUT OF THE DAY - To Steven... Happy Birthday in a few days bro! :-D

ALASKA WEATHER REPORT - FABULOUS! ;-)

P.S. I'll probably post some pictures tomorrow.