Survive the Sound: Team PP

Greetings all- Long Live the Kings has just started up Survive the Sound for the second year, and this year they have a team feature which allows us to all join a particular team and watch how each others fish compare during the event. There are even prizes for the best team, etc etc.

I have created a team for those of us who want to participate in Survive the Sound this year under.... you guessed it, Team "Piscatorial Pursuits"

Scroll down on main page to Teams, and click Join next to team PP: https://survivethesound.org/home

Those of you who wish to participate by sponsoring a Steelhead Smolt, please join the team so we can all track results together, and compete against a number of other teams that have already formed.

My Fish is "Boom" ...a Nisqually fish adorned in Seahawks gear, hoping for a "weak line of defenses" this outmigration season.

Hope you all join in this fun event that supports Long Live the Kings research on Puget Sound smolt survivability.

Ryley

In the opposing lineup playing for Team Pinnipeds is a group of unrelenting, hungry foes who are known to take no prisoners!!

Good idea, and good point Larry.

We sponsored a half dozen smolts for team Herd of Turtles.

Good luck to all!

fb

I'm a supporter of flashy. Perhaps the pinipeds might be confused by the cathodic protection for the bridge.

Dawg Paddle is taking it to THE HOUSE!!!!!!!!

Only two Sign ups so far, cmon guys we had about 12-15 last year. Click the link and pull out the wallet to support a great cause!

I signed up last night.

I'm in. I can't pass up Swedish fish.

Salmonella is my fish

I thought my fish last year was merely lost as he kept going from McNeil to the Narrows Bridge and back......until I realized he was in the belly of a seal. Uff Da!!

Sargeant snackbar reporting for duty.

6 more days to sign up! We have 8 or so folks signed up so Far. I have a coupon for a free fish if someone would like it, PM me.

Fishy McFishface checking in as the newest member of Team PP.

Fish on...

Todd

Started today?

RIP Lulu.

Swedish is hanging in at 9th place on day 2!

Fishy McFishFace is jamming, boy has wheels!

looks like our team is doing well so far.

I hope he doesn't burn himself out, that's my boy!

Fish on...

Todd

Only one dead fish confirmed so far. That's good, I guess.

I am holding my breath for FMcFF...at the rate he's moving he'll be at the bridge soon, and that's a good spot to turn into an entree.

Fish on...

Todd

Dawg Paddle and Steely are at least still living (in the river) and seem to be taking their sweet time.

I'd like to think they are staying in the back of the pack, recharging their batteries and getting stronger for their voyage through the Sound.

In reality, they both know they are probably something's dinner in the next couple of days.

Hope whatever eats my two fish gets a really bad stomach ache and dies.

Hopefully the transient killer whales that visited the canal last week thinned out the seal population a little....

They're dropping fast now. Lots getting picked off at the mouth of the Skokomish. Interesting watching LuLu. She wouldn't go past the Hood Canal Bridge. I wonder if she was actually picked off early, and we're seeing the seal hanging out.

Lulu was marked as "dead" on day one, I thought? Five dead now, FMcFF is still flying high, I think he'll move up the leaderboard a bit today, he's a cruiser.

Fish on...

Todd

I'm gonna run down to the Skok and huck spinners at Dawg Paddle and Steely a bit later today. Your fish are screwed Parker! Bringing dynamite as backup....

I genetically modified these two fish to only respond to either a double stacked RVRFKR or a big-ass glob of the never-released-to-the-public UEC.

When you are down there and notice a horrible stench and tiny little bubbles coming to the surface, it's not the normal man-turds that line the bank and float down the river.

Those bubbles are noxious fish-farts from Steely and Dawg Paddle sent your way.

The Hood Canal Bridge awaits my smolt today. This might be the end.

This. Fishy McFishFace should be there today or tomorrow, at the latest...huge bottleneck for Hood Canal fish.

Fish on...

Todd

That happened to my little guy last year - nabbed early and I was teased by watching him move from McNeil to the Narrows and back again until I concluded he had become part of the 30 millions pounds of food seals in P.S. consume every year. Uff Da!!

GO SNACKBAR! You've got rebel running through your blood, sea lions are the Empire.

Fishy McFishFace swam all the way into and around Dabob Bay, and is now sitting at the Hood Canal Bridge...this is his moment of reckoning.

Fish on...

Todd

Boom Has exited the Nisqually and is loitering at the Narrows bridge today. This is where my fish died last year, if he gets past the narrows I think he has a real shot!

Those bridges are real killers for the outgoing smolts...they aggregate predators, and concentrate prey...and our little guys are definitely prey.

The HC Bridge is especially tough on steelhead since they tend to migrate quite close to the surface, and the floats on that bridge go 14-17 feet down into the water.

Fish on...

Todd

Flashy is still hanging around the top end of the tidewater on the Skok.

Still alive.

Still alive? Are you really, really sure????

Steely must have fallen prey to Sky-Guy and a double stacked RVRFKR. OTOH, not too sure how that would have happened as both my fish are

NISQUALLY fish

Eh. Guess it really doesn't mater.

RIP, Steely.

Dawg Paddle is still hanging in there........

My boy Eddy Gar is still alive and swimming near Anderson Island!

FMcFF is hung up at the Hood Canal Bridge...swimming back and forth for two days now trying to find a way by it.

Fish on...

Todd

Flashy is dead.

Dawg Paddle is now queued up at the Narrows Bridge.

If I cared, I would photoshop the crap outta that picture and steal your very soul.

My fish had no trouble with the bridge. Did a little circle and then blew right by it...... only to be eaten at Driftwood Keys.

After 2 1/2 days of hauling ass and up the Canal...FMcFF is now on day five of being stuck right at the bridge, moving back and forth nonstop and unable to find a way thru.

As the caption on his current status says: "Stuck on the south side of the bridge. Morale low".

Stats say that 65% of Hood Canal steelhead don't make it past the bridge, that's a brutal bottleneck.

At least he's still alive...40% of the original starting fish are already dead.

Sergeant Snackbar and a couple of others have crushed it, they are past the last array at the entrance to the Straits and are in the ocean!

Fish on...

Todd

Whoah! Boom went from narrows bridge to off marrowstone island over the two day weekend, that's cooking! I think he has a real shot at the ocean now....

Dawg Paddle is cruising right along and just stopped by Whidbey Island to say hi to Rico.

He's not going to win the race, but I'd love to see him make it to the ocean.

Swim Dawg Padde, swim!

Eddy Gar shot up Colvos Passage and past Elliott Bay. Making progress!

Team PP is in 9th.

Swedish is stuck at the bridge.

"Almost past the hard part!"

The pontoons carrying the Hood Canal Bridge extend 15ft underwater and span 83% of the canal. Steelhead generally migrate near the water's surface, away from the shore. Research has shown that juvenile steelhead often swim back and forth near the pontoons once they reach the bridge, a sign that the pontoons may be obstructing migration. Predators may learn this and hunt at the bridge for an easy meal, which could explain why so many steelhead appear to be dying there.

Damnitall. Fishy McFishFace died swimming back and forth at Hood Canal Bridge. Six days of being stuck without able to get by makes a fish a pretty easy target there, apparently.

RIP, buddy.

Fish on...

Todd

Dawg Paddle is in 12th place now, just off of Marrowstone Island as well. Don't think he's got the speed to make a Top 10 finish.

Sounds like more fish are making it this year. Cool!

I did this last year, and my smolt's journey looked a lot like this year's Fishy McFishFace run. Back and forth at the bridge multiple times, culminating in more seal scat.

It seems clear that the bridge has a significant impact. What Swifty27 said, plus, the back sides of the pontoons probably make for great ambush spots when smolts finally get up the courage to run around the bridge. Let's tear that thing down and start a new ferry route!

Dumb questions: Does it have to be a floating bridge with pontoons? Too deep or rough for pilings? The HC expanse isn't that wide at all. China just built a 60 mile bridge for cryin' out loud. Why can't we tear it down like we did the Elwha dam?

Woo hoo! Swedish is past the floating bridge! I'm really surprised how long he stayed there without getting eaten.

Pretty deep at the HC bridge (depth in fathoms). 300ft should be doable though. I'm sure a non-floating bridge could be built. I wonder if a channelized floating bridge would work. If the floats alternated depth, there would be multiple shallow channels along the length of the bridge.



Narrows for comparison.

I think they should retrofit the bridge with channels and tunnels thru it to let the fish pass...15 to 18 feet is too deep for steelhead smolts, they are surface migrators...unless there is a way to direct them to the high rises so they can swim thru there.

Any fixes like these, though, just seem like making great ambush points for predators, too.

Fish on...

Todd

Five of our fish (out of 11 total) are still alive. One made it all the way, one is near the finish line in PA, one is ready to get chomped at that damn bridge, and two are still swimming laps in the river. Low "n" but it does seem that maybe a couple extra are making it through vs. last year.

fb

RIP Dawg Paddle.

Made it to end of Whidbey and the opening of the Straights.

Close....but not close enough.

D'oh!

Only three of Team PP left now. Puget Sound is tough on smolts these days!

Fish on...

Todd

HORRIBLE stats... glad I'm NOT one of them smolts!

The Gov's Orca Recovery group's Prey working committee meets next Tuesday in Oly. I wonder how they will find a way to ignore the adverse impact of pinnipeds on final return of Orca food (AKA Chinook).....

Some possibilities:

1. Totally ignore reality
2. Rationalize that they, too, have to eat
3. Pour more money into production and hope to outproduce a corresponding growth in pinniped numbers

Others??

I anticipate that they will choose to view the situation through rose colored glasses, where mutually exclusive outcomes are possible.

Yes, the rose colored glasses syndrome. Seems there is an epidemic of that these days.

Our neighbors to the north aren't faring much better...

https://chromersportfishing.com/2018/01/30/bc-fish-farms-sea-lice-killing-wild-salmon/