Through the Lens with Colton Johnstone: Week Six
September 4, 2018
Week Six: August 27th to 31st, 2018
In this final week of my Environmental Visual Communications program placement with Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), I had the opportunity to shadow a variety of fish survey techniques employed by TRCA’s Environmental Monitoring and Data Management team.
In shallow nearshore waters along Toronto’s regional waterfront where electrofishing boats are not able to traverse without scraping bottom, TRCA’s Monitoring team uses seine nets to survey fish communities. Stringing the seine net to their arms and legs, the waterfront team wades out to cover an area of shoreline before pulling in their catch. Unfortunately, there was very little fish recorded on that particular day but it was still interesting to see the monitoring crews in action!
Later in the week, I got to observe how TRCA’s Monitoring team conducts a tandem electrofishing survey of a wide stream. Seven field staff worked together as a unit to ensure that as many fish as possible could be surveyed. When a fish was spotted there would be a flurry of activity as the team scrambled to ensure it ended up in a net.
Once the team was out of the water and identifying and measuring the fish I would try to get a reasonably clear photo of the different species of fish using a special fish viewer container. It took me a while to figure out how to position the viewer to get as much natural light in as possible. I would also have to time my shots for when the fish was close to the glass to make sure the image wasn’t distorted by water in the viewer or drops on the outside. With practice on dozens of fish I eventually started to get a feel for it! Although I saw dozens of species of fish that day, there was one species that always seemed to get the teams excited: Brook Trout. A sensitive coldwater fish species, Brook Trout rely on good water quality habitats with plenty of groundwater upwellings to support their spawning, feeding and overall habitat needs.
Identifying fish has never been something I have taken time to learn about before this placement but I certainly brushed up on my fish ID skills shadowing the Monitoring team during fisheries surveys in regional streams and along the Toronto regional waterfront.
Overall during my summer placement, I have photographed TRCA’s Monitoring team collecting many different types of aquatic and terrestrial data in a variety of different landscapes and with many awesome people. I have captured some photo and video I’m very happy with and excited to share. Thanks for reading about my journey and check out @colton.p.johnstone on Instagram to keep up with what I’m doing in the future!