And So, We Driftnetted The Flint Today

I got out this afternoon with Jeremy, Richard and Brittany to the Flint River for our first-ever dual driftnetting (tomorrow's the new moon). We aimed to set the nets between the first and second transects we did two Saturdays ago. But we quickly found that the Flint's substrate is often thin layers of sand sitting on top of buried boulders; it's difficult to drive a stake into the bottom that's able to hold the net against the current. Our net in the middle of the river was finally secured, but the net against the eastern bank needed someone to hold one of the stakes. This isn't so bad for an hour on a pleasant day, we'll see how much fun this might be in the future. Both nets were full of an amazing amount of material after an hour, entrained fine sands as well as lots of organic material (including macroinverts). Sorting through this material will make what Brittany has done with Estill Fork driftnettings look easy, I'm afraid.

I also used the new camera today for the first time. The images won't be as good as with other cameras, but I guess I decided that I'd rather have a camera that will survive this kind of work rather than one with SLR quality. The first photo below shows a view from upstream near the western bank with one net in the middle of the river, and the other net being held by Brittany. You can see the streaks of green algae, along with plants, attached to rocks in the foreground.

And here's a shot of Jeremy, Brittany and Richard standing around the net that had to be held in the water. The ruins of the old highway bridge are in the background.