- morning fog hovered overthe surface of chilkat lake as i stepped to theedge and looked out. somewhere beyond the haze thisbody of water was the stage for a final act in the life ofone truly magnificent animal. a creature that hadtraveled thousands of miles.
Va Game And Inland Fisheries, and defied all odds of survival just to make it backto this very lake. the place from which it was born and the same placewhere it would die.
we finished strappingour gear to the kayaks, deployed onto the water, andbegan to cut across the lake. this was about to be oneof the most daring episodes of breaking trailwe would ever film, and there was no turning back. (intense drum music) the alaskan wilderness is home to some of the most incredibleanimals in north america. as we kayakedacross chilkat lake,
i tried to envisionlife as a grizzly, lumbering alongthe water's edge, and searching for my next meal. that is definitely a freshbear kill right there. and it's just eaten outthe back of the salmon and its innards. and you can see all the blood stillon my fingers there. if there's one thing thatproves you are in bear country
it is dead salmon. alright, just be careful aswe're moving through here. watch your back. what if i had been bornto see this wild place from an eagle's eye view: soaring above thewater's surface and hunting for shadowsin the ripples below? to be a bear or abird would be awesome. but today, i am a human.
however, the crew and i wereon a very similar mission to both the grizzlyand the eagle, as our target wasone and the same: sockeye salmon. we filmed this episode duringthe last weeks of july, which is also the heartof spawning season. thousands of thesemagnificent fish were migrating infrom the ocean, up the rivers and endingtheir incredible journey
as they reachthese inland lakes. (water splashing) okay, so you see this water coming off the sideof the mountain? where that stream meets the lake the water will beincredibly clear. the perfect place tolook for some salmon. let's head over there and tryto find ourselves some fish. it's in these clearpockets of water
where the females willbuild their nests. here they will lay their eggs just before a courting malearrives to fertilize them. well, it's definitelyraining out here on the lake. nothing like searchingfor salmon in a rainstorm. that's alright, weare several miles out on the lake at this point. no fish yet. but we're gonna find them.
oh, we're gonna find them. chilkat lake spans just over three and a halfmiles in length. and while there arelikely thousands of salmon beneath the surface, our search would stillbe rather difficult. here, fishy, fishy,fishy, fishy! most of the water was murky, so our best bet whenit came to finding fish
was to scan near the banks. searching for crystalclear glacial melt water that was pouring downfrom the mountains. - [mark] see any salmon? - nothing here. - [mark] ouch! hit a spine in the eye. - this is exactly the kind ofspot that we're looking for. we've got water flowing offthe side of the mountain
and into the lake. unfortunately it'sa bit too rough and the water isvery murky and deep. if i can't see the fish i can't catch 'em. let's keep moving upthe side of the mountain and see if we canfind something better. suddenly, from thefar side of the lake i heard the unmistakablecall of a bald eagle.
these predatoryraptors had one thing, and one thing only,on their minds: fish. and i immediately knew if wefollowed the call of this bird there was a good chance it would lead usright to the salmon. there are like, four eaglesin the tree right there. the eagles have led usstraight to the fish because right in this cove i can see a bunch ofdorsal fins splashing.
there are about a hundred salmontucked back into this cove. sweet! dude, guys, wehave found salmon. we have been rowingthis entire lake, and low and behold, it was finding eagles thatbrought us to the fish. which, of course, makes sense, because the eaglesare here feeding. but we also have to be careful
because this is a primespot for grizzlies to come down to thewater and feast. alright, we're gonnaset up a base camp, and then strategize how we'regonna catch one of these fish. - dude, good spot. - pow! this was it. after hours of searching inthe harsh alaskan elements we had finally foundwhat appeared to benearly 100 salmon.
they were beautiful, their brilliant, crimson bodies slippery and streamlined asthey darted back and forth beneath the surface. excitement was in the air. we had finally found some fish. okay. this spot's pretty perfect. but be aware thatwe are definitely
in bear territory right now. i gave it a quickscout, made some noise, shouted "yo, bear, yo bear!" clapped my hands. (hands clapping) yo bear! just try to alert anyanimals in the area that we are now here. if there's salmon,there are bears.
nothing is more nerve wrackingthen setting base camp in an area that is clearlytrafficked by bears. and as we quietly snuckthrough the dense forest to get a stealthy lookat the salmon cove it was obvious that the bearshad the exact same mindset that we did. wow. you know what that is? that's one big pileof you know what:
bear droppings. and they're still warm. what the bear did is he lumbered up alongthe edge, like this, and you can see wherehe placed his paws, right there on the edge, waited for fish to swim up close and then probably pounceddown into the water. look at all those fishswimming down there.
and that bear's got thesame idea that i have. only i'm gonna use anet, and not my claws. alright, let's go get set up. - [mark] alright,coyote, there's your net. i think we're getting prettyclose to being ready here with all the gear. what do you think yourchances really are of getting the sockeye? - i have a 75% chanceof actually netting
one of these animals. - [mark] what's gonnabe your technique? - basically i wanna tryto work one of the fish into a corner. the shallower the water, the more it willkinda be disoriented, and i think i'll be able to scoop down and getit into the net. i know there's some overhangs.
and those overhangs they mayalso hunker up underneath there and feel comfortable. and then i'd be able to getthe net up underneath that. so, like i said, ithink about 75% chance that i'ma land one ofthese on the first attempt. - [mark] alright,well, let's do it. - let's catch a fish. this was it: time to catch a salmon.
we had been givenspecial permission byalaska fish and game to use the primitivemethod of dip netting to capture one of these fish. typically they are caughtusing rod and reel. however, we wanted toput as little stress on the animal as possible, and felt that using a netwould insure that the animal was captured without harm. it certainly wasn'tgoing to be easy,
but i was confidentthat if i could corner one of these giantsin shallow water i could make the catch. hopefully, mario gets the shot. - [mark] mario, we're counting on you, buddy. - by sitting upfront with the net, mark was able to slowlyrow me in toward the cove. while mario, rode byaustin in the other kayak,
did his best to capture allof the action on camera. we slowly crept in, as just the slightestdisturbance in the water cause salmon to dartaround us left and right. my original planwas to hang the net off the side of the kayak, and to have a fishswim right into it. however, we quicklyrealized that this plan was not going to work.
so it was time thatwe switched to plan b. coyote, was going in. i carefully stepped out andinto the freezing cold water. it sent chills up my spine and nearly took my breath away. yet, i stayed focused. we had one shotat landing a fish. and i was going to giveit everything i had. (water splashing)(dramatic orchestral music)
got one! got one! - [mario] got one? right here. - there we go! there we go, got one! man, it's cold. it's strong, it's heavy. get the buzz back. that's a pretty good one.
with an enormous fish in the net mark quickly rode hiskayak back to base camp, grab the main camera, and race back to the coveso we could film the scene. (coyote yells excitedly) yes! holy cow! can't believe i got one. man, is that a goodfish right there?
wanna keep the fishas calm as i can. you see it there? swimming down in the water. there ya go, buddy. - [mark] that's a big one. - that's a big one. played it absolutely perfect. they were darting left to right. there was no way iwas going to be able
to get one in the deep water. i played up underneath theembankment there, and that's how iwas able to nab it. - [mark] let mesee it, lift it up. - full grown male. i don't think wecould have landed a more perfect fish. oh man!
got one! - got one, dude. that is a beautiful salmon. - [coyote] beautiful salmon. - alright, got our gear. - fish on set. look at that. that is one strong fish.
let me get my pack off here. (fish splashing) i wanna keep the fish ascomfortable as possible and put as littlestress on it as i can. look at that salmon. how unbelievablygorgeous is that animal? now the way that you canimmediately identify this as a dominant male is you'llnotice the quintessential green head, that hook jaw,with those massive teeth,
and this large ridgeon the top of the back which develops asthese fish mature. now you may bewondering to yourself, is this fish real scaly? it's not. it's incredibly smooth, and very difficult to hold onto, which is why i'm keepingit partially in the net. these fish are sofast and so strong
the way that theymake it from the ocean and then moving up the rivers to get to the spawning grounds. in my opinion, probably themost beautiful salmon species in the world. now there is some importantwork that we need to do today. i need to get thebiometrics of this fish for alaska fish and game, and i wanna do that quickly
to put as little stresson the fish as possible. so i'ma set it backdown into the water. and kinda prop thenet here, like this. i have a measuringtape in my pocket and a scale. i wanna be as accurateas i possibly can here. tip of the snout down to right where the tailfin connects to the body. wow, 24 inches!
that is a two footsalmon right there. alright, i'm gonna do this. one, two, three. hanging up the fish. he is at nine pounds. nine pounds. - [mark] that's apretty good salmon. - pretty good size salmon.
alright, we're gonna come-- whoa, buddy, whoa,whoa, whoa, whoa. holy cow, this fishdoes still have quite a bit of fight in it. now these fish are at theend of their life cycle. let me show you somethingreally interesting here. look at the tail. you see how it's muchlighter in coloration? these fish actuallybegin to deteriorate
as they're moving upstream. i can see there's kindasome gnarled areas on the back of the tail. but really what's distinctis the very light coloration as compared to therest of the body. it's kinda gross and kinda sad, but these fish almostdisintegrate in the water as they age and eventually die. now this fish is at theend of its life cycle
and when it does pass away itwill eventually become food for a bear or an eagle and then return to thisamazing alaskan wilderness in the form of nutrients forthe animals that are out here. and look at that fin. and this is one distinctsign that we looked for when we'd beensearching for fish. it's just this, this dorsalfin breaching on the surface. you can be several hundredyards out in the water
and see these fins upabove just doing that as they're trying to get close to the mouths of these streams. we've got fish all splashingover here around us. and their naturalinstinct is so strong it doesn't matter that we'rehere in the water right now. all of these fish arecontinuing to move up river. if something as bigas a grizzly bear doesn't stop thesefish, trust me,
a camera crew isn'tgonna slow them down. let's take one more lookat this amazing animal. wow! how awesome was this? braving the wilds of alaska and actually nettinga sockeye salmon. i'm coyote peterson. be brave. stay wild.
we'll see ya onthe next adventure. alright, we'll seeya later, buddy. as the fish swamfrom my fingertips and returned to the cove, i found myselffilled with emotions. a wave of happinessblanketed my being as our mission was anincredible success. a part of me felt sorrow, knowing that thisbeautiful animal
was at the end of its life. i found my heartoverflowing with gratitude as the universe hadallowed me to spend time with such a braveand traveled soul. and as he slowlydisappeared into the shadows i knew this was amoment in my life that i would never forget. if you thought thisadventure was epic, make sure to go backand watch our journey
deep into the heartof the rainforest. where we got up close with a poison dart frog. and don't forget, subscribe so you canjoin me and the crew on this season ofbreaking trail. i'm pretty safe right now. i'm sure you're all watchingthis thinking to yourselves, "oh boy, coyote,here you go again,
"handling anotherdangerous animal." trust me, i'm in no dangeras long as i don't lick or eat this little, tiny frog. (birds chirping)(coyote howling)
0 Response to "Va Game And Inland Fisheries"
Posting Komentar