I've been volunteering at the DSI Dam in West Springfield, MA counting the passage of local fish. The real purpose of the fishway is to provide passage for anadromous and catadromous fish, but the local resident fish use the ladder too.
Quick links to the salmon pictures:
My first salmon
My second salmon
A herd of suckers
A healthy 18" brown trout
A healthy 30" hen salmon sulking at the bottom of the transfer tank.
Getting active.
Getting ready to jump over my shoulder.
I found out that as soon as they can see sky, they take off. I thought she was just coming up to check me out - but then she shook her tail and came right out of the water, and bounced off my forearm.
On Tuesday, June 3, I went back to the dam and met Henry Warchol from the Westfield River Watershed Association. Henry is the coordinator for the volunteer operations at the dam. He told me that he had trapped a fourth salmon and Darrel from the Cronin Hatchery had just picked her up. My youngest son David had come along for my shift and I was hopeful he would see something interesting. We were not disapointed. This 36" (huge!) salmon entered the window and I closed the gates. David took these pictures while I was upstairs opening the trap. The last picture shows the trap raised up so I can move the salmon to the holding tank. This makes 5 salmon trapped at DSI so far this season.
Filling the window - a 36" salmon.
In the trap, ready to move.
The salmon are lifted into the refrigerated holding tanks using a cradle like people use for big pike. Basically it's two poles with a rubberized material between them. You let the salmon swim onto the cradle, and then hold the two poles together.
