Day 3

Day 3

Today we visited Lyle Falls Fish way which has the 2ndlargest fish lift in the U.S. and were given tours by Shawn Bechtol a Fisheries Biologist, John Washines a Fisheries Technician and Scott Spino a Fisheries Technician. The tour started off with Shawn guiding us through how a fish lift is operated. After the fish lift collected fish Shawn was able to use low voltage electric narcosis to sedate the fish making them more manageable to work with and take measurements from and tag a few of the fish for us, specifically spring chinook and steelhead. During the data collection Shawn also shared with us how to tell the difference between a native fish and a hatchery fish, a native fish will have an upper back fin intact and hatchery fish will have the upper back fin cut off. Later John Washines took us through the Klickitat Falls Tribal fishing site and explained some of the history and common practices of Yakama tribal fishermen. John Washines said something that made a small group of native women that surrounded him laugh. He said ‘we need more native women in fisheries as leaders, you’re already all bosses so just work with us and be natural to that. John also shared with us how important it was for us to learn how to can and that it was an important skill for Yakama women and that we should learn if we don’t already know how to. I really appreciated a story that he shared about a current fisherman. He told us that there has been a Yakama man who’s been blind for the past 3 years who still fishes on the Columbia River. John said fishing is all about the feel and it’s in our blood to be here fishing, we’re Yakama. 

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