Project Bottleneck

I volunteered to get involved with Project Bottleneck , " micro-trolling" , to tag, sample, and release young chinooks in their first year in the ocean .

 This is a project of the Pacific Salmon Foundation , carried out by non-profits such as, in this case , the BC Conservation Foundation.   I started in October, with Jeff and then with Aaron.  

 We're using gear that looks like regular salmon gear in miniature.  A little Dick-Nite spoon behind a little flasher .  The target fish bite it, but also sometimes larger salmon, and sometimes as many herring as salmon .  

 The salmon go into a tank with some anesthetic to calm them down before we take a tissue sample and insert a PIT tag .   

 Here's a herring . 
  

 There were quite a few humpback whales around still in October . 

Some sea-lions checked us out thoroughly one October day .