I'm working as a Fish Culturist at Hidden Falls Salmon Hatchery in a remote spot near Sitka, Alaska! AM I CRAZY!? I'm starting to think so...

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Boats, Goats, & Babies

I'd like to introduce you all to our new addition... A BOAT!

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P.S. Valerie, that's the Shee Ateeka hotel in the back left.

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When I last wrote, I talked about how Adam might get a boat. He went into town and checked it out and liked it! That was about a month ago! So finally, things have calmed down here, and the weather held up enough for us to get into town, get the boat, and return to the hatchery with it. Now we are back! It's an older aluminum hulled boat with a newer motor. The inside is pretty nice and has a nice heater, which makes for a very comfortable ride when it's cold out. We had a really comfortable ride... until halfway through when the water decided to get choppy. But then it got nice again closer to the hatchery. It only took us about 4 hours to get from Sitka to the hatchery, even with the choppy water.

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There are ALOT of seiners in Sitka right now. The herring fishery is going to happen soon so everyone is out preparing.

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With herring come hundreds of birds... apparently they like to hang out on a larger bird.

On the way, we stopped by the sea lion rookery near the hatchery. Adam has seen it but I haven't... it was AWESOME! It's just a rocky area where tons of sea lions like to hang out. There are probably about 100 sea lions of all sizes hauled up on the rocks, basking in the sun. Adam said there are usually more too. Once we pulled up closer with the boat, they just started getting really mouthy! It was funny. It sounded like a mix between cows and pigs... just going nuts. I took a video but I guess you'll have to wait to see it. The video portion isn't even that great, but the sound is funny. I see plenty of sea lions here at the hatchery, usually terrorizing the returning salmon, but it's pretty cool seeing 100 of them all together.

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Aren't the little ones cute!?
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They were gettin mouthy!

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This cute mother and pup hanging out away from the rest.

A few weeks ago, Adam got his goat back from the tannery. It is small, but definately nice and very soft! Surprisingly soft!! We have it hanging on the wall in the living room now.

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Now about the babies... My baby chinook have been out for 5 or 6 weeks now and they are growing. they are now about .72 grams. For a little while, they seemed to be getting sick but hopefully they are getting better now. Now, adding to my plate, are some more fish! Over the weekend, some of our coho began to get really active in their incubators. I figured they were getting close to their ponding date but was surprised to see how active they were getting! I figured they could wait until atleast Wednesday, when I come back to work because my "weekend" days are Monday and Tuesday. But the boss decided they should be ponded now so Ben did that when I was gone to get the boat. So now I have about 2.3 million more fish to take care of! Lemme tell you what... these fish are tiny! They are about .27 grams, which I'm sure doesn't give you much information, but they are only about an inch long. In a few more weeks, I’ll have another 3 million Coho in another raceway! I sure have my work cut out for me but, it is springtime after all!

Now I’m going to pass this on to someone you all haven’t talked to in a while…

Hey, T-Dog here!

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Things are pretty fun! I just spent the day yesterday hanging out with my girlfriend while mom and dad were getting our new boat. It’s been nice and sunny here and I got to hang out outside the other day. I like the sun. The snow is still around so of course I’m happy with that… but the sun is slowly melting it… which makes me sad… but then I’m back to being happy again when I see that the melted snow makes mud, and I sure love mud!

Anywoof, let’s get serious now…
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Mom doesn’t like to admit it but her feelings are a little hurt that it has been over 4 years and we are just now getting our first visitor! Don’t get me wrong, she is really excited… so am I!! But it wouldn’t hurt to have a few more. But she is getting tired of asking so I just wanted to secretly tell you! Hopefully I don’t get sent to my box for spilling the beans! MMMM Beans…. See ya!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yo yo! Love this pictures. Steve says the boat looks nice (and expensive)! I'm really excited to come out!! Umm are sea lions mean? Because if we go see then i'm probably gonna wanna hold a baby...or at least pet one! Haha

Tucker - you look cute as always, you have such sad little eyes in your last picture! Anyhow, I'm really excited to meet you!

86 more days!

NINER!