Last day, beautiful weather and lots of mud. We left Seattle for Willapa Bay at 5:30am. Three and a half hours later we arrived at the sample site and unloaded the gear. This site is a lot muddier than Big Beef Creek and Lindsay wanted to wear waders to keep a cut on her leg free of mud. Sure, no problem – but the waders are HUGE and about 4 steps in she fell and was coated in mud. This scene, which was not hilarious in the least bit (wink), was to be repeated multiple times on the trek out to the oysters. The laughter just made it that much harder to move. I charged Lindsay with the task of collecting oysters while I hiked down a few hundred yards to attach the bags of juveniles to the already established lines. Of the three sites that the juveniles were outplanted, I only had to stake new lines at one site (Samish Bay). The benefit of placing the bags on already established lines is that the bags will get flipped over (to prevent fouling) when the other farm bags are flipped. As I hiked back I saw Lindsay struggling to keep her feet in her waders and carry the bucket of oysters at the same time. “Leave the bucket, save yourself!”, I yelled. Once everyone was safe on solid ground we commenced sampling and made quick work of the job. On the way home I was excited to find out that the veteran volunteer had brought snacks. Hard work, entertainment AND snacks! Great day.
gene|fish
