Counting Salmon - Part 4, The Count

We started counting salmon early the next day. The first count each morning was at sunrise, about four in the morning. The initial morning count was twenty minutes long, thereafter we counted ten minute on the hour throughout the remaining of the day. The days total was called in using a short wave radio each evening. The department used a formula to estimate the daily escapement.

George and I reached agreement to alternate the early risings. The first to rise would count every hour until the other got up at about eight. Thereafter we would alternate through the day - count ten minutes and have two hours off. Mostly we lay in our bunks and read. Sometimes we go out for a walk, but that seemed strangely pointless as you could see as far in the distance as you could walk - no trees. We’d often go over to the runway and dig for an hour adding a few more feet to its length. Each morning one of us climbed the steps of the tower and looked down upon the white panels shimmering through a rippling current. We used a counter that nested in the palm of our hand. It had a thumb operated button that advanced by one number each time we pressed it. The session might pass without a single fish crossing, or they would transit in numbers beyond our thumb’s capacity to keep up.

Schools usually approached the panels with caution, the leader often circling back, and pulling the rest in an orchestrated swirl of bodies. One would eventually dart across, then a couple more would chance it, and then the whole school would stampede to the other side.

We measured velocity and direction of the wind each day and included the results in the daily shortwave report. The breeze never stopped, a constant that blew at fifteen to twenty miles-per-hour every day. I had neglected to bring a hat, never thought to wear one in the summer, and the wind played havoc with my hair, twisting it into a variety of creative styles. We pined for a calm interlude, and were eventually rewarded, but mosquitoes rose from the tundra in swarms of biblical proportion. We were thankful when the wind commenced blowing.

GO TO: Part 5, The Runway and The Bear