Today we stared releasing our fish! We had a surprising amount too. A few weeks ago we had estimated about ten suckers per net but today after pulling one net and removing all of the fish, we had around 80 healthy suckers to tag and release! We put PIT tags in them to track them over the next few years and see how many of them make it and spawn and live happy lives. To do this, we used an anesthetic to knock them out long enough to get length measurements, species determination, and put tags in. Then we held them in a recovery bucket full of aerated water to make sure none of them had adverse effects from the drugs or the tags. We had zero mortalities which was great, and we released them at the edge of a patch of vegetation so they could have some protection from predators. Now we just have four more nets of fish to tag and release over the next week or so, so hopefully we have just as many fish in those nets!

Getting measured before getting tagged.

Waiting for release in the recovery bucket.

Freedom!!!!!!!!