Quote:
Originally Posted by onetriphudson
That's awesome, what a great program. A few weeks back I caught 7 juvenile in a single morning and I figured it was because of this. If I can get away that day, I'd be honored to help! 
Are families allowed to view or help? Or is it just for dudes? |
Generally, if you are finding shorts in an area you will find more of them. I like to move on when I find them because they tend to engulf the bait and often are throat or gut hooked.
There are lots of tanks of fish and critters that the whole family may enjoy. But the release duties, tanks and enclosure are not friendly to either the young or those not fleet of foot. Especially with the conflicting objectives of speed and care in getting the fish to the transport tanks. There is only enough room for one way traffic through the tank enclosure. The raised floor has lots of gaps around the tanks. The tanks you need to scoop the fish from are about 4 feet tall, and you need to be able to see what you are scooping up. That is because they only want you to scoop a few fish at a time. And if you have to make several scoops, you hold the line up. Even the most able people will drop fish to the ground but, from my experience,children and the less agile drop more. I do appreciate the fact that everyone wants to help, and realize there are times when any extra help is necessary (especially in the afternoon). But, the purpose of the release is to get all of the fish safely into the water. It is not about teaching anyone anything or including them to feel better. Hell, even some of the able bodied adults get in the way trying to reinvent the wheel on things like priming the pumps. I would not tell anyone not to come, but just to be aware of when they are more in the way than helping. The last time we released around 8000 fish, it took 10 full hours of work.