The Great Fish Rescue of 2012, part 2

For the exciting first half of this tale, please read Part I

Morning came. I believe I set the alarm for 5:30? 6? The sun was just beginning to rise and Steve and I got dolled up in our finest fish catching gear and again headed off to the Gunnell Oval. When we arrived, those poor fish were still there. I'll admit, I was hoping they would have magically relocated back to the Kearny Marsh where they belong, so I wouldn't have to touch them.

We up with Vince and checked the path back to the drop-off point at the Marsh- conditions were the same as the day before: cold, wet, squishy.

The rescue started off rocky. The"puddle" created by the uprooted weeping willow was DEEP, much deeper than it looked, and much deeper than we were anticipating. Once again I was the only one with tall boots, so I was the one to venture into the puddle as much as possible- about 2 feet away from the edge, it dropped off into hip-deep water (as I would unfortunately find out later...) so I couldn't get very far in.

This is the handmade net from part I
(didn't work well... but worked GREAT as a lid to the laundry baskets!)

If you read Part I (does anyone actually read this? if so, thank you), you will remember my fear of live fish, specifically, touching live fish. I am proud to tell you, that fear has been CONQUERED! (for carp anyway. I am in no way willing to touch anything larger than a common carp). These carp were giant, kicking, slippery things but darn it I would lower the laundry basket in on its side with one hand, and scoop fish in with the other. It felt awesome. Steve and Vince got into the rescuing too, scooping the fish into baskets. Once we had one or fish in each basket, we'd throw the baskets into the back of the pickup, jump in and Vince would speed to the other end of the lot. Once there we would grab the baskets full of fish and walk/run as fast as possible through the field and marsh to the drop off point.

Once in, most of the fish (there were one or two iffy/sick ones I think) kicked around and did their fish thing. They seemed very pleased to be home! I can't even describe the sheer joy I received from watching those fish swimming around the Marsh, mingling with the others. I imagined them reuniting with cherished fishy family and friends, throwing little fish parties and reminiscing wistfully about the way things were before the storm.

We were on a roll, scooping fish into baskets, hauling them to the Marsh. Vince got his thumb slit open by one of the carp's sharp parts (dorsal fin? Unsure). My aunt came at around 7 am with a rake, which looked insane but was actually a very effective tool. We met up with some really compassionate highschoolers who had a giant casting net that were rescuing fish from ANOTHER giant puddle. They came over to our puddle and we had some success getting fish out. Unfortunately their net got snagged on a root and I went in to unsnag it. I lost my footing and fell completely into the puddle, soaking myself from torso to feet. It was freezing, and I was wondering how I was going to continue the rescue when....

We saw smoke. There were tiny plumes of smoke coming from something by a red fire hydrant right next to the puddle we were in. We called the police, who arrived right away. We were told to GET OUT OF THE PUDDLE because apparently what was smoking was a live wire, downed from the storm. This same wire ran through the puddle we were in, and the end that was smoking was a mere few feet away from where we were, on the wet ground. The area was roped off and the power was shut off. 

Needless to say, we were relieved of our duties for the day.

On a positive note, we relocated sixty something fish that day. We felt fantastic! There were a few other fish in the water from what we could see in the murky water, but whenever there was movement in the water, or the fish sensed danger they would all go deep underneath the surface, or under the weeping willow where we couldn't reach them.

My aunt had told me the day before that the local Kearny High School fishing team had done a rescue just days before our discovery of the fish and had relocated 76 carp. We had a few onlookers over the course of the day, some who took pictures and stared and others who told us of their own stories of fish rescue attempts. It was really, really nice to hear that others had wanted to save these fish, too. 

Vince, Steve and I went back the following weekend and rescued over 20 more fish. They were really not doing so well by that point; many were sick with fin rot, cannibalizing each other... there were a few dead ones floating around amidst the living. It was so sad, but we got as many out as we could. We also met up with one of the coolest teenagers I've ever met whose dad had dropped him off at the Oval so he could rescue some fish (on a saturday morning that could have been easily spent playing video games). He had one of those all-important net-on-the-end-of-a-pole things, and it is truly only with his help that we were able to rescue that day. All in all, we rescued somewhere from 80-90 fish (550+ lbs) over the 2 weekends. I hope the rescue efforts of everyone we met and heard about will have a lasting positive impact on the beautiful Kearny Marsh (which we kayaked a few weeks later- it's GORGEOUS).

Here are some pictures from the first weekend:

Home, Sweet Home

Happy New Year, everyone! May 2013  be filled with health, happiness and adventure outdoors!

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.

Gunnell Oval: After Hurricane Sandy

This morning I took trip to the Gunnell Oval in Kearny, NJ. Home to soccer fields, baseball diamonds, walking trails and the freshwater Kearny Marsh. This is the park in which Steve, my father and I (and my aunt and uncle at one point) recently spent many hours rescuing trapped fish and relocating them to the marsh. (I'm just waiting on pictures from this experience to be sent to me, and then I'll post about it. It was quite an adventure...) 

Even though in total we relocated about 80 carp, local teenagers we met about 100, a nice lifelong Kearny resident whom I met today relocated approximately 80-90 and the Kearny High School Fishing Club relocated 76, I counted at least 40 dead fish along the road, trapped in puddle-ponds, and squished in the street. It was a pretty gruesome sight, and I'm definitely feeling guilty about not being able to save more. I counted 3 surviving fish in the puddle-pond created by a massive willow tree which was ripped out of the ground during the hurricane. Once the rest of the water evaporates, I'm sure we are going to find a really disturbing amount of additional fish who didn't make it.


In the back of the park there's a little bench and then there were immediate walking trails- you could walk all around the marsh, with great views of the water, fish, all sorts of birds (I've heard that there are owls, woodpeckers, hawks and even bald eagles back there). The storm literally moved the earth and pushed what I'm guessing were floating islands against the shore, creating a new shoreline and completely destroying the walking paths. Steve and I had been contemplating having engagement photos taken back there... but now those very paths don't even exist anymore.

I know there are a lot of people really hurting from the storm- we still have so many without power, let alone without homes. People have lost everything. If you are one of the lucky ones, I encourage you to take a walk to your local park and see if there's anything you can do to help put it back together again- picking up trash, setting a tipped trash can upright, seeing if your community's Parks and Recreation department needs volunteers for any projects. 

During my walk, many people drove through, walked/ran through and some were just parked in their cars, drinking coffee and reading the paper. The Gunnell Oval is a happy place for many residents, a place of solitude and peace. I look forward to spending more time there and doing what I can to clean up and preserve such a beautiful park.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves... 

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
(Margaret Mead, anthropologist)