The technique of electrofishing is ubiquitous and universal for fish assessment work. When we teach the electrofishing course we focus, most appropriately, a great deal on the safety of passing electricity through water (pop quiz: those of you that electrofish what are the three mandatory safety features on an electrofishing unit?1). However, in priorizing safety … Continued
Eighteen months ago I wrote about completing some fundamental field measurements when you find yourself in the field and you don’t have the gear to do so1. In that blog I described various ways to determine (i) direction without a compass, (ii) length and distance without a tape, (iii) height without a clinometer, and (iv) … Continued
Gentle reader, please bear with me as we revisit a passage shown you only a month previous. There are many lessons in this brief text and here I wish to consider a second one. I have heard honest men swear that they have killed and cut open tiburons [sharks] and found so many things in … Continued
Gentle reader, I beg your indulgence to begin this blog with a long passage. There is a point to it, I assure you. I have heard honest men swear that they have killed and cut open tiburons [sharks] and found so many things in their bellies that they would have considered it impossible if they had not … Continued
I was recently on a vacation visiting friends in northern British Columbia when my mentor took me out to a spruce tree right beside his driveway and showed me a strangely marked tree (Figure 1). He asked me if I knew what it was and it took me several seconds to recognize as it is … Continued
Several years ago, working in the lowland streams of Nova Scotia, I set a series of minnow traps into the brook and left them for the overnight set. It rained that night. Heavily. Returning to the stream next day I found it overflowing, brown, muddy, and roaring through the channel. Pulling in the lines of … Continued
