After a restful Sunday evening in Anacortes, I was ready to get to work with Julie Barber (1999 NA Rolex Scholar and regional coordinator for the US PNW). Julie had invited me out to spend a week with her surveying for geoducks at a site that would be considered for commercial harvest by the Swinomish tribe. Our Monday started bright and early, as we had to get to Julie’s office on the Swinomish Reservation, get some paperwork for me filled out, load up the Swinomish research boat and I had to do a quick drug test before I could volunteer for the week. After accomplishing all these tasks by 8:30 am, we were ready to drive to the ferry, which would take us to Port Townsend, our “base” for the week. We managed to catch an early ferry and made it to Port Townsend without issue. There, we met with Ralph, a shellfish biologist for the Jamestown Tribe and Karl, a shellfish biologist for the Lummi Tribe. We got the boat launched and floating at the local marina, and James, Julie’s coworker and our boat tender for the next two days, took the trailer to the hotel and drove up to Port Ludlow, where we’d meet up with him and Karl and head out to the survey site. Julie, Karl, and I drove the boat up to Port Ludlow, picked up Ralph and James, and cruised over to Fouldweather Bluff. After an explanation from Julie and Karl on how to lay out survey lines, we got to work! Our system to lay out a connected series of four 150-ft transect lines was far from perfect, but we got two series of four transects layed out and then hopped in the water to get going! Julie and I went down one line while Ralph and Karl descended on the other. We were met with a ripping current and were blown around underwater like bulky flags. The current was so strong we couldn’t stay straight on the transect so we instead looked around the anchor and Julie helped me with a few clam siphon IDs, then we decided to call the dive and ascend. Ralph and Karl had a similar, but slightly less strong current and had managed to survey their 4 transects. We pulled up their lines, laid out the next series of transects, then the 4 of us headed down to conquer one line together. This line had almost no current and we managed to successfully count geoducks. Karl was able to show me how to distinguish geoduck siphons from horse clam siphons (you only see the tip of the siphons, as geoducks are clams that burrow down into sand/silt bottoms). It was a long day of hard work, but I was feeling confident about my geoduck spotting by the end and we headed back to port to dock the boat for the night.
The team was determined on Tuesday to get a fast start to the day, so by 7:15 we were headed to the marina to get going for the day. We got the boat loaded and out on the water to try and get as many transects done as possible for the day. We laid out two more lines of transects, one with 4 and one with 5 transects. Julie and I descended down one line and Ralph and Karl took the other. We had a little current, but nothing near Monday’s first dive, so we managed to complete 4 of the 5 transects on our line before running low on air, so we surfaced before completing the line. After a short surface interval, in which we picked up Karl and Ralph, Julie and I hopped back in to complete the last 150 foot transect on our line and then completing the last transect on Karl and Ralph’s line. We had definitely moved into geoduck territory and were getting really high counts on the transects. After a nice lunch on the boat and surface interval, Karl and I geared up to do one last line of transects for the day while Julie and Karl laid out another line to be ready first thing Wednesday morning. It was a fun and fast moving dive with Karl, bopping geoduck siphons left and right along the transect line (and occasionally stopping to look at some other interesting creature). After finishing our long line of 5 transects, Karl and I surfaced, we pulled up the line, and laid it out at the next location to be ready Wednesday morning for the first dive. By this time the team had an efficient routine for pulling up the lines and laying them back out in the water and we were moving like a well-oiled machine! We motored back to the marina, offloaded the boat, and headed to a local dive shop to get our tanks filled and have some minor equipment repairs completed. Julie ran to the ferry to pick up one of her coworkers, Courtney, who was stepping in for James, who could only stay through Wednesday morning. We then headed over to a local pizza shop for a relaxing dinner and then back to the hotel, where I crashed for the night! The diving was fun and I was learning a bunch of new invertebrate species, but it was sure making me tired at the end of each day.
Wednesday morning, everyone said goodbye to James as he headed back to Anacortes, then the troops assembled with a new vigor to get work done, and get it done quickly! We already had 2 lines set in the water, so after we loaded the boat with tanks/gear, we started suiting up and getting ready to dive as we headed to the survey site. We had kitted up and hopped in the water by 9 am that morning and both dive teams completed two lines, one with 3 transects and one with 6 transects! It was an excellent start to the morning and we pulled up the completed lines and laid out two more sets of lines, one with 5 transects and one with 6 transects. We were able to complete those by early afternoon, and then we broke for lunch. A few of us brought leftover pizza from the night before, plus some other snacks and lunch turned to a full out smorgasbord of shared food. Meals are way more delicious when they are shared among friends! After eating and joking in the sun, we got back to work and jumped back in the water for one more set of lines to survey before we called it a day. We stopped by the dive shop again that afternoon to do more tank fills, then into town for another dinner and early night.
Thursday was our last full day of work, and we had covered over half of the ground that Julie had mapped out for the geoduck track, which was pretty impressive, because it was quite a large track. We got out on the water without problem and back into the routine of laying out transect lines, putting down two sets of 6 connected transects. We decided to switch up buddy teams, so this morning I went in with Karl and Julie with Ralph. Our first line had a decent amount of current but Karl and I flew through the line in record time. The geoduck counts were also slowing down, so it made it easier to get through each transect. When we surfaced and got back on the boat, Karl declared he thought we were reaching the end of the track, which would mean that we could easily knock out a few of the predicted transects if they weren’t in geoduck territory. But we still were getting commercially viable numbers, so we set out two more lines of transects to complete. I stuck with Karl for the second dive, and sure enough, we were no longer in geoduck territory. We counted almost no ducks the entire set of 6 transects, but we sure saw a ton of other cool critters! The substrate has transitioned from sand/silt to a hardpacked clay with a layer of shells/rubble at the top. This meant we saw a ton of piddock siphons, which are a gorgeous cream with purple stripes, plus large rocks serving as habitat for rockfish and lingcod. Scattered along the transect were swimming scallops, decorator and Dungeness crabs, and we even ran into a dogfish, which scoped us out for a minute or two before bolting off. To top it off, there were heaps of neat nudibranchs and Karl even found a ratfish egg case. Although this transect line marked the end of the geoduck surveys, it was the best dive of the week with the variety of creatures we spotted. Julie and Ralph had a very similar dive – very low geoduck numbers but lots of other neat creatures (and they also saw a dogfish!), so we decided to mark the end of the geoduck track. With our early finish, we motored over to meet up with the biologists from the Tulalip tribe, who were on a separate boat and doing eelgrass surveys to delineate the deep edge of the eelgrass beds, which are protected from fishing/harvesting activities.
They were also doing geoduck biomass surveys, which met collecting a predetermined number (in this case, at least 10) of geoducks at random intervals/depths along the areas we previously counted. They had invited me to tag along on one of the collection dives, as apparently geoduck harvesting is unlike anything else. Curious and ever willing to dive, I gladly jumped at the offer and hopped onto their boat with my gear and camera. After a brief explanation of what was to happen, we suited up and got ready to hop in the water. Leading the dive was Rocky, a tribe member and long time researcher with the tribes. He had done over 16 years of shellfish collection for research, and was a pro at geoduck harvesting. There is a very specific process and technique to extract these clams from their deep burrows – it starts with finding and grabbing the tip of the siphon, which is the only part of the duck that sticks above the sand. You then use what’s called the “stinger”, which is a long rod that blasts water at high pressure, by jamming it deep into the sand next to the siphon. The stinger pulverizes the sand and loosens it all up, and as the geoduck retracts it’s siphon down into the sand, you keep hold until it brings you to its own shell, which you grab tightly and pull up from the sand, which is being loosened by the stinger. After having this procedure explained to me, I jumped in with Rocky and Max, and the games began. You can tell Rocky has 16 years of experience doing this – he moves with speed and efficiency and makes a difficult task look incredibly easy. Within moments of reaching the bottom, Rocky had set off with the stinger, feeling around for siphons. He quickly found one and had jammed the stinger into the sand and before I knew it, his entire arm had been pulled down the siphon hole to where the clam was buried and in a cloud of silt, he pulled out a nicely sized duck. After handing it off to Max, who wrote numbers on the shells (to keep track of the order of collection), Rocky was back searching for the next victim. Max had barely bagged the first duck when Rocky was handing him the next. We zoomed around for the next 6 or 7 minutes, with Rocky pulling up ducks and Max marking and bagging them. Before I knew it, we had collected 14 ducks and it was time to head back to the boat. But all the action had created a massive silt cloud, so we followed the hose that powered the stinger back to the boat, barely being able to see 3 inches in front of our faces. It was such a weird and interesting thing to experience, but I was honored to have been invited to watch a pro like Rocky gather the ducks, and the video was priceless. After Tulalip handed off all the ducks they had collected that day to us, we headed back to the marina. We threw anchor in a cove and got to work processing the ducks – measuring shell length and weighing each individual, to later use for determining biomass. We then cut the siphons off the ducks to keep for later consumption and discarded the shells and gut. It was quite the day of excitement and new experiences, and to top it off, Ralph had offered to cook up some of the siphons for dinner that evening. We offloaded the boat and headed back to Port Townsend to wash up then head to a local bar, the Pourhouse, for dinner and drinks. The Pourhouse was a great place – they only served drinks and bar snacks, so they highly encouraged ordering take out to their bar or bringing in your own food. Ralph brought in the cooked geoduck and we also ordered some Thai take out. After we all had the chance to chow down on the delicious clams, we invited everyone else at the bar to try the geoduck. Little did I know that geoduck is a highly valued clam and quite popular in the Pacific Northwest. We were an immediate hit with the other guests at the bar, and even exchanged a few siphons for a few wheels of cheese from a cheesemaker from the local creamery. It was a perfect end to a great day, and after a few drinks and good laughs, we all headed back to bed.
Friday we had a slightly earlier start, for although we finished our diving, we still wanted to get back out on the water and help the Tulalip team process the geoducks they collected that morning. We pulled up to their boat, where a cooler of ducks awaited us. We pulled them aboard and set off to measuring and weighing the ducks. It was quick work and we processed 25-30 ducks before the time came for us to head back to port and begin our journey back to Anacortes. We got back to dock and Ralph unloaded all his gear and tanks (Ralph lives in Port Townsend) and tidied up the boat before he and Courtney drove it back to the marina at Port Townsend, where Julie and I would meet them with the vehicle and trailer. We pulled the boat up without a problem and rinsed/organized gear before the journey home. We then managed to sneak over to the local brewery for a quick celebratory drink before loading up on the ferry back to Anacortes. We first stopped at the work yard where the boat is stored when it’s not in use, giving it a thorough wash down and throwing all the tanks and gear in the back of the vehicle to take back to Julie’s office. We parted ways with Courtney, and Julie and I headed back to her office to finish the work. We quickly had the remainder of the gear put in the dive shed and by 7:15 pm were back at Julie’s home. We both had quick showers, as friends were headed over to grab some geoduck siphons Julie brought back with us and have a few drinks. It was a relaxing evening getting to know Julie and Jay’s friends, but by 10 pm I was tuckered and called it a night.
Saturday we all slept in for the morning, which was much needed by Julie and myself. After a restful night, I did a bit of work in the morning (sending emails, writing letters, doing expense reports), and then the three of us went for a nice little hike in a nearby protected forest. It felt great to stretch my legs after such a hard week of diving plus it was a beautiful sunny day to be out in the woods. After a delicious lunch and a bit of a rest, we decided to head into town to look around downtown Anacortes, swing by a local bookshop, then head to the local brewery, which just happened to be celebrating its 21st birthday! It was such a fun afternoon with Julie and Jay, listening to music at the brewery’s birthday party and sipping on good beer. After cooking up a delicious dinner, we all called an early (ish) night and got some rest, as I had another day of travel ahead of me.
Sunday I was headed from Anacortes to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, where I’d be spending the next two weeks helping with the summer scientific diving course at Friday Harbor Labs as well as diving with any researchers who needed a dive buddy. I packed my bags and had one last lunch with Julie and Jay, before they drove me to the ferry and before I knew it, I was off on my next adventure!
