Elephant Seals Surveys

Today I went on a survey with Heather Jenson and Sarah Allen. I surveyed North Drakes Beach, the Chimney Rock Loop, and Dead Seal Beach. A large majority of the animals had moved from the main colony to North Drakes Beach because of the protection it provides during the worst winter storms in which sand is often washed away from the main colony, leaving exposed rocks and nowhere for the animals to rest. I was amazed at how many more animals there were on the beaches, and I learned that the peak of the breeding season is the last week in January. We counted 50 pups from north drakes beach, which is considerably different than my last survey in which there were no pups being born yet. Along the chimney rock loop there were few animals scattered here and there, but I counted 7 pups at Gus' Cove, which is situated near the end of the point. Lastly we counted dead seal beach, which was made difficult by dense fog.

Elephant Seals Surveys

Today I went to the headlands with Dave Press and Heather Jensen in order to survey several elphant seal colonies. The first colony that I surveyed was the south end of Drakes Beach. This was made difficult by 50 mile per hour winds. Next we made our way to the tip of the point to in order to post a sign and survey two smaller beaches near chimney rock. Neither beach had any animales on it; probably due to the high tide. Lasty we counted the sealions at sealion overlook. I was surprised how much the number of animals on the beach fluxuates from week to week. Last friday there were 104 animals, and today we only counted 28.

Elephant Seals Surveys

Today I participated in a seal survey. I met with Dave Press and two other park workers and drove out to the tip of Point Reyes. I surveyed three separate sites for elephant seals on the point including Drakes Beach Elephant Seal Overlook, Dead Seal Beach, the southern tip of south beach. I also surveyed sea lions at the sea lion overlook on the south side of the point. For the sea lion survey they were merely counted. The elephant seal surveys were a little more complicated. With binoculars I first got a total count for the number of animals on the beach. Next I divided the animals into several categories. This is somewhat easy at this time of year due to the fact that only males are present on the beach. The males are divided into the category of yearling, juvenile, sub-adult one, sub-adult two, sub adult three, sub-adult four, or adult depending on the size of its body, chest shield, and nose. This information is gathered yearly in order to monitor flux in the seal populations, and potential problems.

Website Work

I started today by reading about Dreamweaver, the program that I used to create the web pages. Then I got a tutorial from Dave Press the web designer at the Park. After the tutorial I received word documents that I then transformed into web pages. I did this by understanding basic HTML code for operating Dreamweaver, and by using tables in order to incorporate graphics into the page. I finished converting two of the documents into web pages, and was able to add them into a list so that they can be easily navigated to from the Parks page on fish. The next step will be to finish converting this rest of the files into web pages, and then I will create links to them so that they can be seen my the general public.

Giacomini Wetland Monitoring

Today I got to go to the Giacomini Wetland for fish monitoring along with five other assorted biologists from the park. This monitoring was realated to the restoration of the Giacomini Wetland. For the last half of the 20th century the Giacomini Wetland has been diked, and used for cattle grazing. Recently the park recovered the land and has been restoring it to its natural state. The dikes are being removed, and the barns have already been taken out. Giacomini wetland is home to an incredible amount of wildlife. By netfishing several different sites we saw such species as Stickleback, Top Smelt, Starry Flounder, Sculpin, Yellowfin, and the nationally endangered Tidewater Goby. We measured, weighed, and counted all the fish that we found. By this continued monitoring the park is able to gain knowledge about how the restoration of the wetland has affected the wildlife present.

Computer Training

Today I worked on the the computer at the park headquarters. I was able to complete a computer training program in order to be certified to use government computers. I also met with David Press to discuss working on the website for the park. Lastly I read several packets on government regulations for their websites.

Bear Valley Fish Monitoring 10/9/07

Bear Valley Fish Monitoring

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Davis Allen

Purpose: The fish project is designed to monitor the fish in the Point Reyes National Seashore watershed. For this specific survey twenty percent of the pools in Bear Valley Creek (a tributary of Paper Mill Creek) were e-fished. This particular survey is completed once a year in Olema Creek, Pine Gulch Creek, Redwook Creek, and Cheda Creek in order to count all the juvenile fish. The idea is that the pools are home to the vast majority of fish living in the creek; therefore, by getting the tallies therefore by getting the tallies for resident fish in a portion of the pools one can project the total number, and what species of fish are in the creek.

Hypothesis: If the vast majority of the fish population actually do inhabit the pools then it is probable that the projections for the types and number of fish will be approximately accurate. Following strict procedures, and taking multiple surveys will help to create a solid theory of fish populations in the Bear Valley Creek.

Procedure: A net is placed at the bottom downstream side of the pool that is to be fished. Water measurements including dissolved oxygen, temperature, conductivity, and salinity are taken and recorded for the pool being fished. Next a net is placed at the upstream end of the pool being fished, effectively shutting off all escape routes for the fish in the pool. Next the electric probe is calibrated for the conductivity of the water. Once the shocking begins the probe is moved in a methodical motion from bottom to the surface covering the entire pool. Two netters stand on either side of the shocker in order to scoop up the fish being shocked. The fish are put in buckets, then they are identified, weighed, and measured. All information is recorded. The procedure is then repeated for all the sites being sampled.

Observations: The fish we recorded in the creek included Stickleback, Steelhead, Sculpin, and Cojo Salmon fry.

Conclusion: Working on a larger project does not bring immediate closure, but rather helps to gather knowledge for a future conclusion or finding. Most excitingly was the finding of a Cojo fry in Bear Valley Creek. This was the first Cojo seen in the creek in at least the last three years. Although one fish isn’t enough to draw the conclusion that salmon are now spawning there, it is an interesting finding, and deserves future inquiry.