Six Month Check-in and Thank You

In a couple of days, I will be at the half-way point of this “2012 Fish Big Year” adventure. My goal was to see 100-species of fish within a calendar year- similar to what the birders do.  With the completion of my recent Tennessee trip and opening up the Minnow Aquarium on Third Beach, I am now  at over 80-species, so I am well on my way to achieving this goal.

Meanwhile, my friends told me I should write a blog about this undertaking, and I have. What is fascinating is that through today, my blog has had about 400-page views, and while that number certainly is unremarkable, what is amazing is where the readers have come from; in addition to the United States, I have had readers from Russia, England, Canada, Germany, Austrailia, Turkey, South Korea, Norway, and Latvia.  Wow, readers from four continents-a small readership acculminated in six-months for such an obscure subject (Me-not the fish).  That is some power of the web.

So, based on these numbers, this particular blog entry is really a thank you to all the people who have read these entries these past six months. Thank you for taking time out to read them.

Next entry recounts my trip to America's Fish Mecca- Tennessee.

Newport Interlude

Upon returning to Newport, my friend James invited me to a cocktail party on the boat he is First Mate on, the “Sloop Providence”, a replica of John Paul Jones warship from the Revolutionary War that captured some 40-odd British vessels.  After the party, I noticed some green underwater lights emanating from the end of the Aquidneck Lobster Company dock. They are newly installed and here I saw many  striped bass (#39) in the eerie lights. They were actively hunting sand lances (#40). I didn’t have my camera, however returned the following night and alas, this was the sole sand lance left.

 The striped bass naturally didn’t pose for me.

                                                                            Sloop Providence

Activity at the Third Beach aquarium is heating up. I met Norman Bird Sanctuary Education Director Kim Botelho at the compound and we have a of work to do before opening in a couple of weeks. We have had a setback because the recently donated fish stands have been deemed unsuitable a now we must hire a carpenter to build new ones. So the aquarium is on hold.

                  

  Afterwards,  I went exploring around “Crab Town” at the very northern end of the Beach. Here I found and photographs this inconspicuous beauty, one I have long wanted to see- a naked goby (#41).

"Crab Town" looking out to Sachuest Point and open ocea.  Note the Puddingstone Rock.

 Next and final adventure before my duties at the aquarium being in earnest is a long trip to Chattanooga, Tennesse to meet with other fish heads for a mini-regional gathering. Who knew, but Tennesse has the most diversity of fish species of any state in the county- over 300 species Tennessee almost has as many fish species as Rhode Island has bird species. 

River Herring in Maine

Upon the completion of work for the year at school, I went to Maine for five days over the Memorial Day weekend.

I had made arrangement with the town of Benton’s (next town over from Clinton) Alewife Warden to help out counting fish as they came up the advanced fish lift at the Benton Dam on the Sebasticook River. The warden put me in touch with N. from the Department of Marine Resources.  We made arrangement to meet on Saturday.

When we met, N. gave me a tour of the amazing structure, a model facility that other outfits nationally are emulating.  As of the weekend, 1.6-million have been pushed through for the season. Benton is so proud of the re-establishment  of river herrings that the weekend before, the first Benton Alewife Festival was organized and conducted.

Here are some pictures.

Benton Dam

Every ten minutes, a bucketful of fish gets hoisted up the lift...

...and down this chute.

The river herring squeeze through the barriers...

...and are visable through this viewing chamber.

If a shad is observed, like this one with the tail sticking out to the right, they are personally given the up-and-over.  To date only 26-of these mysterious fish have been observed.

                           
                             The town awards one alewife concession, and this is their operation.

At the far end of the dam is an eel lift. In the small pools are writhing masses of eels awaiting transport up river.

The following morning, I set off for actual surveying, not in the form I had expected. Instead N. wanted me to check whether alewives were pushing through at various fish ladders upstream.

First stop Plymouth in Penobscot County. Plenty of alewives here.

                                                                   Look at them at my feet

Next was the ladder at Stetson, also in Penobscot County. Not nearly as many river herring here, although big water snake sunning at the dam.

See the water snake?

Finally on the day was the ladder at Newport on Sebasticook Lake. Here was a mother lode, chock full of fish. Again, what a facility. They take anadromous restoration very seriously in Maine.

    

The next day, N. had me check three spots downriver from the dam along the Pattee Pond Brook in Winslow. Two of the three spots yielded nothing, the third only one alewife. Two photos of the brook below.

                                         Pattee Pond Brook empties into the Sebasticook

Because of stormy weather that arrived I wasn’t able to do any more surveying.

Fish seen on the weekend included:

American eel
Alewife    (#34)                                                                                                                                                                 
Bluebacked herring  (#35)
American shad     (#36)                                                                                                                   
Carp
White sucker    (#37)     
Smallmouth bass   (#38)
Redbreast sunfish   (#39)  
Yellow perch                                                                                                                                                         

Woonasquatucket River and Great Swamp

After traveling to Ohio with the crew, I went on two trips looking for fish, both in Rhode Island.

The first was to northern Rhode Island beginning at the Audubon Society headquarters in Smithfield then working my way back to Providence via a new river system I had been previously unaware of- the Woonasquatucket River.  Although I don’t have much in the way for photographs, I did see some great fish including creek chub (#30), carp, white sucker(#31), largemouth bass, brook trout, (#32) and a massive chain pickerel (#33).

                                                                                                    

                                                        White sucker (top) and creek chub (bottom)

Two weeks later I went again to the Great Swamp Management Area in West Kingston and I didn’t have much luck for fish.  On the other hand, as always, I did encounter terrific wildlife, including a number of great birds and butterflies.

The only photographs I took were of an immature bluegill. One photo below.