Post by SeaRat on Aug 15, 2017 13:40:07 GMT -8
I have finally produced my video of the two dives earlier this summer of the Pacific lamprey, Lampetra tridentate, spawning. Before I put that video up here, I'm going to post my June 18th, 20112 dive for you to see. That was the first time I had actually witnessed lampreys spawning, and I did not have a camera or a video to record it, so I described it here.
John
Date: 6-18-2011 Dive Site: High Rocks, Clackamas River, Dive Number: 2-2011, Entrance Time: 11:02 AM, Exit Time: 11:54 AM, Bottom Time: 52 minutes
PSI Used:
Started with 1400 psig, ended with 300 psig, total: 1100 psig
Surface Air Consumption Rate (SACR):
Used twin 45 cubic foot tanks, for a total of 90 ft3@1800 psig. Started at 1400 psig. 1400psi /1800psi = 0.78 x 90 ft3 = 70 ft3 available. 300psi /1400psi = 0.21 x 70 ft3 = 15 cubic feet still in the tanks at the end of the dive. 70 ft3 – 15 ft3 = 55 cubic feet used in 52 minutes. 55 ft3 / 52 minutes = 1.06 cubic feet per minute used.
Depth: Max depth was about 25 feet, but most of the dive was spent at about 10 feet
Participating Divers: Solo
Dive Plan:
This dive was planned as the first of the season at High Rocks. I’ve been diving this site for years, but usually start on Memorial Day. This year’s extremely high water and snow melt kept me from even thinking about it until today. But the weather was rainy today, and upon looking at the water I almost decided not to dive. Then the Fire Department showed up with their divers, and I decided that if they could get wet, so could I.
Water Conditions (Temperature, Visibility, etc.)
The water was cold, and normally I ask the lifeguards about the temperature. But today the lifeguards were not there yet, so I estimate the temperature in the low 40s. Visibility was about 4 feet, and the lighting was not good because of the heavy cloud cover with rain. Current was strong, but the river was not as high as I expected. It was maybe three feet higher than normal, which meant it was dive-able.
Observations:
I took my time getting geared up. This was a full wetsuit day, and my first dive since late January. I also decided to dive my twin 45s, with my Healthways SCUBA regulator hybrid, and my Scubapro AIR I as an octopus (it had a LP inflator and gauge too). I used my regular mask, with the SeawiscopeEY attached. I also dived the yellow bike helmet with a snorkel attached.
As I was gearing up, I noticed a guy walk by my car. A few minutes later, he walked by again, going the same direction. Then he stopped about a hundred yards down the road where it becomes a cul-de-sac with a foot bridge over the river (an old railroad crossing). He stopped in the rain, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, and watched me gear up. After about five minutes, the fire department showed up in an engine/rescue rig and a SUV. The SUV parked on the other side of the road, so I went over to tell the chief that there was a guy casing my car. I had just put my cell phone in the SeawiscopeEY case to take down toward the river (I was going to ditch my gear, come back and try to catch the guy on video going into my car). But with the fire chief there, I didn’t need to. After explaining the situation, he decided to call the PD, and they would send a patrol car by to watch.
I had to walk down the hillside, and noted that they had a new bathroom available. I walked through the bushes carefully because of the weight of the twin 45s. When I got to the river where I normally go into the water, I noted the higher water level, and a convenient new tree down near a rock; it was convenient because I could put my mask, gloves, etc. on the tree while I put my fins on sitting on a rock in the water.
The Fire Department diver was in the water near where I was entering, and he pushed off to go downstream. Looking at the shore, the Fire Department personnel were on the rocks on the river bank. I watched them for a minute, then pushed off into the current using my Healthways Scuba regulator rather than the snorkel.
Normally, at this site, I go to the bottom here and make my way downstream and across the current to an eddy just up from the High Rocks narrows channel. But today, because of the current, I stayed on the surface until I was past the fire department personnel, I still wanted to get into the eddy, but needed to do that underwater at this point because the surface current was very strong. I went to the bottom, and was swimming upstream toward the shallower areas of the eddie. The bottom here is rocky with gravel on the bottom. As I started up, I noticed a brown Pacific lamprey. It was going my direction, so I decided to stop for a moment and watch it. The lamprey (Lampetra tridentate) was brown rather than grey, indicating to me that it had not been in the river too long.
I swam up the gravel bank from about 15 feet depth to about 10 feet depth, nearing the bottom portion of this eddy but where there was still a downstream current. There I saw two more lampreys, which were joined by this third one, on the bottom holding onto stones in their mouths. Then they curled around each other, and began mating. I reached up to my mask and brought the SeawiscopeEY down in position on my mask. This is a double-lens device that allows very close focusing and observations. With it down, and the two lampreys in a mating position (one male attached itself to the female’s head, and circled her body with his), I watched in amazement as they convulsed in a mating orgasm, and eggs and sperm came out. After a moment, the male released his grip on her head, and the three lampreys began moving stones over the site. At first. It was small stones being moved out, then large stones were moved on top. They kept moving the stones in the river, and the large ones were bigger than my fist. One lamprey would cling to the stone with his/her mouth, then with body undulations try to displace it from the bottom. The larger stones were moved over the area of the eggs, which were sticking to the rocks on the bottom. Some had drifted back in the current too.
This process was repeated at least five times while I watched during the next 20 minutes. The male would grab the head of the female, wrap his body around the female and they would release sperm and eggs in what could only be described as a body convulsion, a fast-frequency twitching of the whole lower bodies of the two fish. This would be followed by several minutes of moving stones on the bottom. This was a cooperative effort by three lampreys. At one point, the dominant male tried mating with the female, and because the other male was along-side could only wrap his body around the both of them. That did not work, so he would change his body position slightly and try again. Finally, and only after he had successfully wrapped his body only around her, the mating commenced again.
This mating activity of the lampreys was fascinating to watch. Toward the end of my observations, the other male tried to mate with this female, and a fight ensued. The dominant male attached to the other male with his mouth, and swam him away. He returned, and the fight ensued again. Eventually, only the female and the dominant male were there.
By this time, I was getting cold, so I reluctantly pushed off into the downstream current, when across the High Rocks narrows, and surfaced to see whether the fire department was there. I could not see them, nor the lifeguards, so I submerged again and continued downstream. By this time I had only about 600 psig (500 psig reserve still in one cylinder’s J-valve). As I came downsteam, I found myself climbing over boulders, so I briefly surfaced again to gain my bearings, then submerged and got into the main stream.
As I came under the footbridge, and into the more lighted area, I drifted into a face-to-face with a fish I had never seen underwater before, a sturgeon. This is the fabled Columbia River White Sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus Richardson), and it was the biggest fish by far that I have seen in the Clackamas River. My reaction was a hooted expletive through the Healthways Hope-Page mouthpiece. I saw it only for a half a second, and then it turned tail and in one motion was gone. Its head was a full foot across in front of me, and I estimate its length at about six feet.
After my breathing got back down to normal, I continued downstream. I had found a golf ball at High Rocks, but now was downstream and had found a fishing lure. I put it into my BC front pocket, but noted that I had lost the golf all. Oh well, not a big loss. A minute later I drifted by a rock which contained a salmon about 18 inches long, and it couldn’t see me as the right side of its face was damaged by something. It had a long, white laceration where its eye should have been. I decided to try to grab it, by didn’t even get my hard around its tail before it was gone. It was a nice, bright fish, and it is probably good that I did not catch it.
As I neared my exit point, I knew it would be different from last year because the river was 3 feet higher. This actually made the exit easier, as I found some rocks to get out on and sit down to take my fins off. As I swam to the exit, I noted a fisherman, and as I was standing up he came over to me to say how surprised he was to see me exit the water. It was raining, and he was wearing a cotton sweatshirt. I told him that I had enjoyed an interesting dive, and told him about the mating lampreys and the sturgeon. He was trying to release his line, which he had caught in the rocks. I had to do some rock climbing to get out (tricky with twin 45s on your back), and when I got to stable ground, motioned for him to come to me. I told him that with the tanks, it was easier for him to come to me, rather than me walk to him. I gave him the lure that I had found, and he said it was a salmon lure that he could use.
I slowly made my way back up to my car. It was about two hundred yards away, and with the gear it became the biggest part of this workout (my justification for the dive). I looked to make sure that the back window was intact as I came closer, and it was. I keep the car’s valet key on my BC, and opened the hatch. I got out of the scuba, put the fins down and then got out of my wet suit. With a towel, I dried off and put on my sweat shirt, sandals and rain jacket, then headed to the new bathroom. I would normally go at a McDonalds a block away, but the new rest room made the task easier. As I was coming out, I noticed an EMT, who was one of the lifeguards. He asked if I was the diver, and I said I was. I normally go down to tell them I’m out of the water, but since he was up I didn’t need to. I started telling him about the lampreys when an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officer came by, so I repeated the story of the mating lampreys to her, and the sighting of the white sturgeon. As I was walking back to the car, I noticed a Gladstone police car, and the officer came out. I talked to him about the guy I noted casing my car, gave him a description (not a good one, though, as I only got suspicious when he was at a distance). I had talked with him last year at High Rocks too. Then it was time to drive home.
Special Problems and their Proposed Solutions:
1. I was really glad I had dived today. I almost did not, as the conditions were what I considered marginal for diving (weather, visibility, current).
I did want to test my hybrid Healthways SCUBA regulator, as it had a duckbill in the exhaust. I had tested it during the surface dive, and found no water penetrated into the exhaust hose like it did without the duckbill. I had the original diaphragm in it too, which did not seal as well as the glove material of nitril I had used before. But it is probably stronger, and did do well. The exhalation was ever-so-slightly easier when I was right-side down, probably because a slight amount of water leaked into the chamber between the duckbill and the exhaust diaphragm.
There was water inside the regulator, which means that it probably leaked in through the diaphragm seal. I used a different ring than the original one, thinking it would be better, but apparently it was not.
The Scubapro AIR I is an awesome regulator. I used it just after seeing the sturgeon, and that is a wonderful regulator.
The SeawiscopeEY enabled me to get within a foot of the lampreys as they were mating and watch it very, very closely. It was absolutely amazing to see. Using a quiet double hose regulator helped this too; I don’t think I could have made these observations at this distance with a single hose regulator.
My wet suit is getting very old, beat up, stiff and needing to be replaced.
My Para-Sea BC worked extremely well, and I had the modified military harness on the tanks, which was very comfortable. I had a USD backpack on this set last year, and getting out caused me to get a muscle strain as the full weight of the cylinders was on the one portion of my lower back where the backpack hit. I probably had the chest strap too tight, as I needed to loosen it when walking back to the car.
Oh, how I wished I had carried my camera! But it was the first dive, in dark waters with a high current. My camera is so bulky that it would have been difficult to bring, but I could have gotten some really unique photos of lampreys mating. I probably would not have gotten anything of the sturgeon thought, due to the startle factor.
PSI Used:
Started with 1400 psig, ended with 300 psig, total: 1100 psig
Surface Air Consumption Rate (SACR):
Used twin 45 cubic foot tanks, for a total of 90 ft3@1800 psig. Started at 1400 psig. 1400psi /1800psi = 0.78 x 90 ft3 = 70 ft3 available. 300psi /1400psi = 0.21 x 70 ft3 = 15 cubic feet still in the tanks at the end of the dive. 70 ft3 – 15 ft3 = 55 cubic feet used in 52 minutes. 55 ft3 / 52 minutes = 1.06 cubic feet per minute used.
Depth: Max depth was about 25 feet, but most of the dive was spent at about 10 feet
Participating Divers: Solo
Dive Plan:
This dive was planned as the first of the season at High Rocks. I’ve been diving this site for years, but usually start on Memorial Day. This year’s extremely high water and snow melt kept me from even thinking about it until today. But the weather was rainy today, and upon looking at the water I almost decided not to dive. Then the Fire Department showed up with their divers, and I decided that if they could get wet, so could I.
Water Conditions (Temperature, Visibility, etc.)
The water was cold, and normally I ask the lifeguards about the temperature. But today the lifeguards were not there yet, so I estimate the temperature in the low 40s. Visibility was about 4 feet, and the lighting was not good because of the heavy cloud cover with rain. Current was strong, but the river was not as high as I expected. It was maybe three feet higher than normal, which meant it was dive-able.
Observations:
I took my time getting geared up. This was a full wetsuit day, and my first dive since late January. I also decided to dive my twin 45s, with my Healthways SCUBA regulator hybrid, and my Scubapro AIR I as an octopus (it had a LP inflator and gauge too). I used my regular mask, with the SeawiscopeEY attached. I also dived the yellow bike helmet with a snorkel attached.
As I was gearing up, I noticed a guy walk by my car. A few minutes later, he walked by again, going the same direction. Then he stopped about a hundred yards down the road where it becomes a cul-de-sac with a foot bridge over the river (an old railroad crossing). He stopped in the rain, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, and watched me gear up. After about five minutes, the fire department showed up in an engine/rescue rig and a SUV. The SUV parked on the other side of the road, so I went over to tell the chief that there was a guy casing my car. I had just put my cell phone in the SeawiscopeEY case to take down toward the river (I was going to ditch my gear, come back and try to catch the guy on video going into my car). But with the fire chief there, I didn’t need to. After explaining the situation, he decided to call the PD, and they would send a patrol car by to watch.
I had to walk down the hillside, and noted that they had a new bathroom available. I walked through the bushes carefully because of the weight of the twin 45s. When I got to the river where I normally go into the water, I noted the higher water level, and a convenient new tree down near a rock; it was convenient because I could put my mask, gloves, etc. on the tree while I put my fins on sitting on a rock in the water.
The Fire Department diver was in the water near where I was entering, and he pushed off to go downstream. Looking at the shore, the Fire Department personnel were on the rocks on the river bank. I watched them for a minute, then pushed off into the current using my Healthways Scuba regulator rather than the snorkel.
Normally, at this site, I go to the bottom here and make my way downstream and across the current to an eddy just up from the High Rocks narrows channel. But today, because of the current, I stayed on the surface until I was past the fire department personnel, I still wanted to get into the eddy, but needed to do that underwater at this point because the surface current was very strong. I went to the bottom, and was swimming upstream toward the shallower areas of the eddie. The bottom here is rocky with gravel on the bottom. As I started up, I noticed a brown Pacific lamprey. It was going my direction, so I decided to stop for a moment and watch it. The lamprey (Lampetra tridentate) was brown rather than grey, indicating to me that it had not been in the river too long.
I swam up the gravel bank from about 15 feet depth to about 10 feet depth, nearing the bottom portion of this eddy but where there was still a downstream current. There I saw two more lampreys, which were joined by this third one, on the bottom holding onto stones in their mouths. Then they curled around each other, and began mating. I reached up to my mask and brought the SeawiscopeEY down in position on my mask. This is a double-lens device that allows very close focusing and observations. With it down, and the two lampreys in a mating position (one male attached itself to the female’s head, and circled her body with his), I watched in amazement as they convulsed in a mating orgasm, and eggs and sperm came out. After a moment, the male released his grip on her head, and the three lampreys began moving stones over the site. At first. It was small stones being moved out, then large stones were moved on top. They kept moving the stones in the river, and the large ones were bigger than my fist. One lamprey would cling to the stone with his/her mouth, then with body undulations try to displace it from the bottom. The larger stones were moved over the area of the eggs, which were sticking to the rocks on the bottom. Some had drifted back in the current too.
This process was repeated at least five times while I watched during the next 20 minutes. The male would grab the head of the female, wrap his body around the female and they would release sperm and eggs in what could only be described as a body convulsion, a fast-frequency twitching of the whole lower bodies of the two fish. This would be followed by several minutes of moving stones on the bottom. This was a cooperative effort by three lampreys. At one point, the dominant male tried mating with the female, and because the other male was along-side could only wrap his body around the both of them. That did not work, so he would change his body position slightly and try again. Finally, and only after he had successfully wrapped his body only around her, the mating commenced again.
This mating activity of the lampreys was fascinating to watch. Toward the end of my observations, the other male tried to mate with this female, and a fight ensued. The dominant male attached to the other male with his mouth, and swam him away. He returned, and the fight ensued again. Eventually, only the female and the dominant male were there.
By this time, I was getting cold, so I reluctantly pushed off into the downstream current, when across the High Rocks narrows, and surfaced to see whether the fire department was there. I could not see them, nor the lifeguards, so I submerged again and continued downstream. By this time I had only about 600 psig (500 psig reserve still in one cylinder’s J-valve). As I came downsteam, I found myself climbing over boulders, so I briefly surfaced again to gain my bearings, then submerged and got into the main stream.
As I came under the footbridge, and into the more lighted area, I drifted into a face-to-face with a fish I had never seen underwater before, a sturgeon. This is the fabled Columbia River White Sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus Richardson), and it was the biggest fish by far that I have seen in the Clackamas River. My reaction was a hooted expletive through the Healthways Hope-Page mouthpiece. I saw it only for a half a second, and then it turned tail and in one motion was gone. Its head was a full foot across in front of me, and I estimate its length at about six feet.
After my breathing got back down to normal, I continued downstream. I had found a golf ball at High Rocks, but now was downstream and had found a fishing lure. I put it into my BC front pocket, but noted that I had lost the golf all. Oh well, not a big loss. A minute later I drifted by a rock which contained a salmon about 18 inches long, and it couldn’t see me as the right side of its face was damaged by something. It had a long, white laceration where its eye should have been. I decided to try to grab it, by didn’t even get my hard around its tail before it was gone. It was a nice, bright fish, and it is probably good that I did not catch it.
As I neared my exit point, I knew it would be different from last year because the river was 3 feet higher. This actually made the exit easier, as I found some rocks to get out on and sit down to take my fins off. As I swam to the exit, I noted a fisherman, and as I was standing up he came over to me to say how surprised he was to see me exit the water. It was raining, and he was wearing a cotton sweatshirt. I told him that I had enjoyed an interesting dive, and told him about the mating lampreys and the sturgeon. He was trying to release his line, which he had caught in the rocks. I had to do some rock climbing to get out (tricky with twin 45s on your back), and when I got to stable ground, motioned for him to come to me. I told him that with the tanks, it was easier for him to come to me, rather than me walk to him. I gave him the lure that I had found, and he said it was a salmon lure that he could use.
I slowly made my way back up to my car. It was about two hundred yards away, and with the gear it became the biggest part of this workout (my justification for the dive). I looked to make sure that the back window was intact as I came closer, and it was. I keep the car’s valet key on my BC, and opened the hatch. I got out of the scuba, put the fins down and then got out of my wet suit. With a towel, I dried off and put on my sweat shirt, sandals and rain jacket, then headed to the new bathroom. I would normally go at a McDonalds a block away, but the new rest room made the task easier. As I was coming out, I noticed an EMT, who was one of the lifeguards. He asked if I was the diver, and I said I was. I normally go down to tell them I’m out of the water, but since he was up I didn’t need to. I started telling him about the lampreys when an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officer came by, so I repeated the story of the mating lampreys to her, and the sighting of the white sturgeon. As I was walking back to the car, I noticed a Gladstone police car, and the officer came out. I talked to him about the guy I noted casing my car, gave him a description (not a good one, though, as I only got suspicious when he was at a distance). I had talked with him last year at High Rocks too. Then it was time to drive home.
Special Problems and their Proposed Solutions:
1. I was really glad I had dived today. I almost did not, as the conditions were what I considered marginal for diving (weather, visibility, current).
I did want to test my hybrid Healthways SCUBA regulator, as it had a duckbill in the exhaust. I had tested it during the surface dive, and found no water penetrated into the exhaust hose like it did without the duckbill. I had the original diaphragm in it too, which did not seal as well as the glove material of nitril I had used before. But it is probably stronger, and did do well. The exhalation was ever-so-slightly easier when I was right-side down, probably because a slight amount of water leaked into the chamber between the duckbill and the exhaust diaphragm.
There was water inside the regulator, which means that it probably leaked in through the diaphragm seal. I used a different ring than the original one, thinking it would be better, but apparently it was not.
The Scubapro AIR I is an awesome regulator. I used it just after seeing the sturgeon, and that is a wonderful regulator.
The SeawiscopeEY enabled me to get within a foot of the lampreys as they were mating and watch it very, very closely. It was absolutely amazing to see. Using a quiet double hose regulator helped this too; I don’t think I could have made these observations at this distance with a single hose regulator.
My wet suit is getting very old, beat up, stiff and needing to be replaced.
My Para-Sea BC worked extremely well, and I had the modified military harness on the tanks, which was very comfortable. I had a USD backpack on this set last year, and getting out caused me to get a muscle strain as the full weight of the cylinders was on the one portion of my lower back where the backpack hit. I probably had the chest strap too tight, as I needed to loosen it when walking back to the car.
Oh, how I wished I had carried my camera! But it was the first dive, in dark waters with a high current. My camera is so bulky that it would have been difficult to bring, but I could have gotten some really unique photos of lampreys mating. I probably would not have gotten anything of the sturgeon thought, due to the startle factor.
John
regulator, which means that it probably leaked in through the diaphragm seal. I used a different ring than the original one, thinking it would be better, but apparently it was not." 
