Day 4 - Fish
Today I was out exploring and collecting fish samples with the Michael, Glen, Nathan and Malcolm. We visited two different sights today, and both were very different to any other sights that I had previously been too. The first sight was along a river. Dan the chopper pilot put us down on a flat rock and then we had to unpack the chopper and clear the take off space so that he could leave. I have never felt so tall as when I am walking under moving chopper blades!
Michael and Glen are both the Curators of fishes at the NT and WA Museums. They use some very interesting techniques in order to catch their fish samples. The most amazing technique is a thing called electro fishing. This involves running an electric current through the water and all of the fish within its reach are stunned and then collected. Michael wears a pack on his back that contains the electro fishing unit and a large battery and he looks like he is straight out of Ghost Busters.
Nathan’s role for this Bush Blitz expedition is to help the fish guys and to also take lots of photos and videos of the whole expedition. For this trip he is the chief ‘water photographer.’ So anything that needs to be photographed in water – he’s the man to do it! Working with him has been great; but he doesn’t go anywhere slowly. I’ve found myself running across rocky river beds and jumping over logs just to keep up with him. He also taught me how to catch fish using only a piece of plastic bag for bait.
When we were at the first sight I saw my first freshwater crocodile. He came very close when Malcolm, who is one of the other teachers, was fishing with his plastic bag bait. At this sight I also found a tarantula burrow. I took the GPS co-ordinates for Mark (Spiderman), so that he could come back and see if he could catch the tarantula that lives there.
Our second sight was at Oomaloo Falls; although at this time of year it could be called Oomaloo Trickle. This is the most spectacular location. Dan flew the chopper in and landed right on the edge of the falls. During the wet season it would be impossible for Dan to land his chopper in this particular spot because there would be thousands of litres of water flowing over the falls.
Our first task was to hike down to the bottom of the falls with all of the fishing gear; but not before I checked out what was in the water below us. I walked to the edge of the rocks and looked all the way down into the water below. Wow! It was a long way down and there were more than 20 crocodiles floating around and hanging out like they owned the place! When we got down to the bottom of the gorge the fishing began. Instead of using the electro fishing unit this time, Michael and Glen decided to catch some using a sweep net. This required four people; one person to hold the net on the bank, two people to use the net in the water and the forth person to watch for crocodiles. I decided that I would brave the crocodile infested water and be one of the people using the net. I figured I had enough ninja moves up my sleeve that I could bust a few out if a crocodile decided that I would make a tasty lunch.
After surviving the crocodiles and making our way back to helicopter I decided to go for a little adventure while I waited for my turn in the chopper. Dan had told me about a stonework road that had been built by hand for the Afghan Cameleers. He pointed me in the right direction and off I went to try and find this road that enabled the cameleers to go over the hills instead of around them. It was an awesome structure. It looked like something that you would see in Europe. The dry-stone wall work was incredible and it has lasted many many years. I don’t know much about how this road but I think I’m going to have to do some research about it when I get home.
Tomorrow is a rest day for the chopper pilots so we won’t be going out and exploring. We will be having lunch with the Traditional Owners of the land and hopefully seeing the big salt-water croc that lives down in the river!
My highlights for today were swimming with crocodiles, finding and collecting some mistletoe samples for Tony, catching a nymph (like a dragonfly) by hand for Nik and interviewing Dan while he flew us home in the chopper.
Michael and Glen are both the Curators of fishes at the NT and WA Museums. They use some very interesting techniques in order to catch their fish samples. The most amazing technique is a thing called electro fishing. This involves running an electric current through the water and all of the fish within its reach are stunned and then collected. Michael wears a pack on his back that contains the electro fishing unit and a large battery and he looks like he is straight out of Ghost Busters.
Nathan’s role for this Bush Blitz expedition is to help the fish guys and to also take lots of photos and videos of the whole expedition. For this trip he is the chief ‘water photographer.’ So anything that needs to be photographed in water – he’s the man to do it! Working with him has been great; but he doesn’t go anywhere slowly. I’ve found myself running across rocky river beds and jumping over logs just to keep up with him. He also taught me how to catch fish using only a piece of plastic bag for bait.
When we were at the first sight I saw my first freshwater crocodile. He came very close when Malcolm, who is one of the other teachers, was fishing with his plastic bag bait. At this sight I also found a tarantula burrow. I took the GPS co-ordinates for Mark (Spiderman), so that he could come back and see if he could catch the tarantula that lives there.
Our second sight was at Oomaloo Falls; although at this time of year it could be called Oomaloo Trickle. This is the most spectacular location. Dan flew the chopper in and landed right on the edge of the falls. During the wet season it would be impossible for Dan to land his chopper in this particular spot because there would be thousands of litres of water flowing over the falls.
Our first task was to hike down to the bottom of the falls with all of the fishing gear; but not before I checked out what was in the water below us. I walked to the edge of the rocks and looked all the way down into the water below. Wow! It was a long way down and there were more than 20 crocodiles floating around and hanging out like they owned the place! When we got down to the bottom of the gorge the fishing began. Instead of using the electro fishing unit this time, Michael and Glen decided to catch some using a sweep net. This required four people; one person to hold the net on the bank, two people to use the net in the water and the forth person to watch for crocodiles. I decided that I would brave the crocodile infested water and be one of the people using the net. I figured I had enough ninja moves up my sleeve that I could bust a few out if a crocodile decided that I would make a tasty lunch.
After surviving the crocodiles and making our way back to helicopter I decided to go for a little adventure while I waited for my turn in the chopper. Dan had told me about a stonework road that had been built by hand for the Afghan Cameleers. He pointed me in the right direction and off I went to try and find this road that enabled the cameleers to go over the hills instead of around them. It was an awesome structure. It looked like something that you would see in Europe. The dry-stone wall work was incredible and it has lasted many many years. I don’t know much about how this road but I think I’m going to have to do some research about it when I get home.
Tomorrow is a rest day for the chopper pilots so we won’t be going out and exploring. We will be having lunch with the Traditional Owners of the land and hopefully seeing the big salt-water croc that lives down in the river!
My highlights for today were swimming with crocodiles, finding and collecting some mistletoe samples for Tony, catching a nymph (like a dragonfly) by hand for Nik and interviewing Dan while he flew us home in the chopper.