This consisted of digging up large plugs of eelgrass + rhizome + sediment (with a handheld snow shovel!), dumping it into a brightly coloured buckets in a canoe along with a chunk of rebar to hold it in place. These mounds were transported just downstream to the transplant site, which adjoined another, intact bed of eelgrass. At this site we dug holes in the sediment and then plopped the plug into place, using bamboo "chopsticks" to try and hold things in place against the river current. Some of the donor site shoots were also washed of sediment, then attached to small pieces of rebar with twist ties. We planted these in between the larger eelgrass mounds to fill in the gaps. The transplanted eelgrass was arranged in a checkerboard pattern. The plan is that overtime, they will expand and fill in the gaps. Steve will be monitoring and tending to this bed for the next 9 years (that's quite a commitment!). I've posted an underwater video of the transplant site taken by Ben in full wetsuit attire (plus samurai ponytail):http://picasaweb.google.com/margothl/07_06_15_SiuslawTransplant
It was great to work with this crew as they are really gung-ho - wetsuits, canoes and all! This morning I went out to two of my sites to collect eelgrass and algae biomass samples. The tide was incredibly low (-0.6m), which is always cool as all these new features of your site are revealed. The low tide was actually at a reasonable time this morning (a gentleman's tide said someone yesterday), so there were a ton ofclamdiggers out on the flats. I listened as one guy working close by tried to coak out a clam he was hunting, "come on honey, squirt for me!". Gentlemen's lingo indeed. On my way out to my first site a guy passed me and asked if I had caught my limit yet, I responded, "yes, in eelgrass". He didn't get it, and followed my tracks to my transect line, where I assume he thought I was filling up on clams. Then he proceeded to dig a huge hole right in the middle of the eelgrass bed. Arghhh!!!!! I went back and explained to him that it would be nice if he could avoid this section, and that the clamming was much better up higher anyways. He said, as expected, that he had never been out here before but thought he'd try this spot as he saw others out here - I think I need better camo for the next tide series! It doesn't matter though, you can't keep people away I guess, at my next site, there were also some huge pits near the monitoring site. Some guys asked me to come over - they were curious about the i.d. of a huge moonsnail (Euspira lewisii) they had found and I asked them about the pits. They said, yeah, people out for the first time and they have no idea where the best clams are. I met one more notable character on the mudflat today. He was a heavyset man scuffing along on two pontoon shoes. I asked him about them, and he said, "first time I came out I almost had a cardiac arrest, these things are the only way my big belly doesn't sink into the mud". His friend had custom-made these mud walkers for him: inflatable wheelbarrow tires, a wood plank and bindings - I might have to try this one day!I''m glad that the past couple of days have been the lowest tides of the year, and that mostly my sites are protected by super early mornings and quick exposure. However, the super low lows are great for fieldwork. It seems like you have the whole day to work, an endless time as the tide recedes. Then the water hovers for awhile at the channel edge before the flood, rushing back in much faster to send you scurrying quickly back to shore.
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