This morning along Lava Island on the Deschutes River, the buckets were filled up with fish netted from the side channel that is slowly drying up due to the low winter flows. While scooping up tiny sculpin and trout to transplant back in the main-stem of the river is not a permanent fix to the problem – it still feels good knowing that so many care about the river.
The neatest part of the experience for me was seeing a group of kids from Summit High School who had skipped taken the day off to volunteer to help the Deschutes. I met one of these young men at the showing of Finding Fontinalis this past Summer at the Tower Theater – and he struck me then as someone who cared deeply for the fisheries around Bend, and it was so cool to see him out there netting fish today with his friends.
The fish salvage is going to continue on Thursday. If you are interested in helping out, please get a hold of me, or just show up at Lava Island around 9AM with your waders on.
What is the thing on that guy’s back? Looks like you were fighting ghosts maybe too ? 😉
That is exactly what I thought too – I kept humming ghostbusters. Inside the proton pack was I believe a 12 volt battery and some circuitry to control the “shocking wand”. An 8′ or so steel cable came out the backside of the pack, and the bottom 2′ were un-insulated. The operated had a “wand” with a metal hoop on the end – when they pulled the trigger, a small charge was created in the water which “shocks” the fish and stuns them momentarily to allow for easy netting. I placed my hand in the water during the shock and didn’t even feel it FWIW.