The Great Fish Rescue of 2012, part I

The Great Fish Rescue has to be one of the most rewarding and fun thing I've done all year (and it's been a year of many wonderful and rewarding moments... I'm a doula!)

It all started sometime in early November, after Sandy had come through town and ruined lives. My father (Vince) and I took a drive to the Gunnell Oval in Kearny NJ to inspect the storm damage, which was monumental- you can see photos of the damage in my post here. The damage was so striking that later that day we took Steve to the Oval so he could see for himself. While Vince and Steve were talking to some residents who were also at the park, I wandered over to some giant weeping willows that had been ripped out of the ground. The Kearny Marsh water had flooded during Sandy and had come through the marsh, through a parking lot, and into the baseball diamonds past these downed weeping willows.

The willows' root systems had created giant holes in the earth, which had been flooded with Kearny Marsh water. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the Marsh water had brought along several of its own inhabitants: hundreds of carp. It was one of the saddest things I've ever seen, all those tiny mouths opening and closing above the water.

This is a common carp. 

I immediately called over Vince and Steve and we all stared in disbelief. There were children playing soccer in a nearby field, some adults playing catch... and here were all these poor fish, trapped away from their natural habitat, crowded together in a tiny space with no food. Steve and Vince were onboard for rescue immediately... but as the day turned to dusk, it became apparent there was a lot more to relocating carp than one would think.

Instead of creating a plan first and and acting second, we got in the car and raced home.  As we drove, we decided we would catch the fish in laundry baskets, as Steve and I seem to collect them. Once home we raced around putting on boots, gathering latex gloves, laundry baskets, buckets. I realized I was going to probably have to touch live fish which is something that's always sort of creeped me out. We brought along some old 2x4's to help make some stable ground for ourselves as ground was still soaked everywhere from Sandy... and you know, we were going to be trekking around a marsh.

We ran into my aunt and uncle (we live in a small urban town) who were very interested in helping rescue the fish- we all got into separate cars and went back to the Oval. Once there we realized we had to figure out where to move the fish. Allllll the way on the other side of the parking lot, past the old bench and past the soccer field, there was an opening in the trees. Walk through the marsh for a bit and finally we came to the water. It was quite a trek, but we figured if we caught some fish and then hopped in the back of Vince's pickup, then carried the fish by hand through the marsh, it could be done. 

Scouting part of the "drop" location

By this time, the sun was as good as down. We must have looked ridiculous with our laundry baskets, trying to catch carp in the dark by the light of a lantern. I will admit, that first night was a bust.

One- it was really dark. Two- we did not have a set strategy. Three- I was the only one with tall boots, so I was sent into the water to nudge the fish by hand into the laundry baskets. This proved to be tragic, because of:

Four- those fish, which had been hanging out rather pathetically near the water's surface, suddenly became VERY MUCH ALIVE once I nudged them. Carp KICK. There were a lot of shrieks on my part. My aunt admitted to me later she wanted to kill me because I just couldn't touch a fish to save my life. We wound up switching shoes- my boots for her sneakers- because I was such a terribly afraid wiener about the whole thing, and she has no problems with touching live fish. The night ended with 2 fish relocated.

Might I mention that these carp were huge? Easily 8-15 lbs a piece. Huge. They look one size from above the water, but once you try to handle one of them you realize they are MASSIVE. (and slippery) (and uncooperative)

behold!

After about 40 minutes of ridiculousness, my aunt and uncle called it a night. Vince, Steve and I made a game plan- we were going to shop for supplies and then the next morning at sunrise go back to the Oval and relocate some fish.

Unfortunately, we went to 3 stores that night and no one sold waders in our sizes or fish nets on the end of poles, which would have been very very useful for our endeavor.

Steve and I were up late that night, watching one of my favorite shows, Alaska: The Last Frontier and crafting a fishing net by hand, made from the outer ring of a basket, some burlap and a staple gun. We were determined to rescue those fish, and I was determined to touch them and not flip out.

What happened the next day... no one could have expected - we literally risked our lives for those carp! And we wound up relocating over 80 of them.

...But more on that later.