I Hate gill nets. So much. They’re one of the dirtiest fishing methods around, but if your end goal is to eat every fish you catch, it’s a pretty
good choice I suppose. Our fishing surveys are meant to mimic the fishing
methods of local Cocama Indians so appropriate take quotas can be set for the
Reserve; but instead of keeping the fish, we count/weigh/measure each fish and put it back in the river.
|
The village of Bolivar is just a couple hours downriver. They're better at fishing than we are... |
Ten percent mortality is written into the permit, but I
suspect it’s much (MUCH) higher than that, as mangled fish become easy targets
for larger predators once we “release them Live” (just slightly worse for the wear..).
|
So it's possible that not all the fish make it back to the river. It's really hard to let those big Oscars go... |
Plus, we sometimes catch things that aren’t fish.
|
These armored catfish are especially hard to get out of the nets, but they sure are adorable. |
|
I don't really know how these guys keep getting caught, but here we are. |
We catch the occasional turtle here and there, but they’re
easy enough to free unharmed. I’ve heard rumors they caught an anaconda in the
net last year, but so far (fingers crossed) we haven’t had to deal with that (HOW WOULD YOU???). But that's a problem for Future Ellen...
No comments:
Post a Comment