I always appreciate my time here in the Bella Coola Valley.
It’s not about the weather (today was a mixed bag of cloud, rain, and a few breaks of sun….short, but they were there.
It’s not entirely about the environment, though that is always interesting and beautiful. When I pulled my waders on during a cloudy and threatening morning at the edge of the river I thought I maybe should have pulled some long johns on underneath my leggings, but when I stepped into he water I was surprised how warm it was, not a good thing. At this time of year that water should have sent a chill through me even through the waders. It didn’t. And that is not a good thing.
It’s not about the bears. The lack of bears was unusual, I’ve been called bear attractant, but maybe I’ve lost my charm. Not a bear to be seen on the Lower Atnarko today. And that is just fine, because it’s always a little bit unnerving having them so close.
It’s not even about the fish. Last year there were so few Chinook, fewer than I’d seen in my 12’ish years coming up here. This year there are definitely more. There are few pinks to pick out of the nets, though I pulled a little rainbow trout and, a whitefish out from nets filled with big Chinook. There were a few coho in the river, and three or four sockeye shot past as we rafted by. I have the requisite number of tooth snags after day one of untangling big fish from tangle nets. Some ended up as broomstick, being stripped of eggs or milt on the river bank. Others weren’t quite ripe and were released, and one or two were so exhausted by the capture and the stress of the warm water that I spent ten minutes or more just holding them upright under the water to help them revive enough to swim away upright. Fingers crossed they made it, simply swimming away doesn’t mean that they will, catch and release is hard on fish and many die in the hours after release.
It’s about the people I encounter here. There are the constants, the people who are here year in and year out and I love spending time with them, picking up topics where we left them last year, working towards something, and also learning from them. And there are also the people who are new, or are here for a season. I love hearing their stories, why they are trying out the hatchery work, where they come from, what their goals and interest are. I like learning from hem too.
Today we had a videographer on the crew; he was collecting video imagery that will be used for public display at both this site and at a site in the Lower Mainland that is undergoing a rebuild. He slowed us down a bit and we had to take a second raft along so that there was room for both him and his equipment, but I think he got some really great, quintessentially moody West Coast environment video. In that regard it was too bad that no bears showed their faces. But it was fun to engage and explain what was happening. It’s funny how I can stand in front of a room full of people. and teach in an engaging manner. I know I am a good teacher in front of an audience. Stick a camera in my face and I turn into a pumpkin though, even when the camera is in the middle of a river in the middle of a forest. I am not cut out for speaking in video format, it just doesn’t work for me. Pretty sure none of that will make it anywhere except the cutting room floor. Good thing that one of the guys on the crew is such a personality and did a much better job…..I just kept pointing the videographer towards him 😉
Coming up here always gets my feet settled on the ground again, and it reminds me who I work for. Not the bean counters in some office in Ottawa. I work for the people doing the really hard work at the facilities. My job is to help them do their jobs as best they can.
Coming up here reminds me of why I decided to take that support biologist job and why I keep working in the organization that I do. And it makes some of the intolerable stuff a little easier to cope with.
Basically, coming up here year after year keeps on keeping me keeping on…..
