ST a frentorsamnre een ay TST ere ern Bs - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 7, 1996 -: SKEENA ANGLER: ROB BROWN Think this hurts? UST AS the total population of this province is an ageregate of townships, municipalities, cities, villages, ihe total population of fish using 4 specific river is the sum total of the in- digens from its fish bearing tributaries. Wise, honest governors will try hard to under- stand the regional habits and needs of their con- stituents, as well as their distribution, before embarking on a regime of governance - at least that, in theory, is best way to proceed. The people who choose a career in wildlife manage- ment are faced with an analogous situation, The politician has any number of time honoured tools, like polls, for determining the information he or she requires, Things are not as easy for his or her wildlife counterpart. Faced with mute clientele and the urgent need to resolve allocation and ownership disputes between sectors and even countries, managers of fish and game have had to develop some crealive and sophisticated ways to ferret out vital data regarding populations, run timings, range and exploitation rates. A few weeks ago I wrote of the adventures of fisheries biologist Mark Beere and his col- leagues in their pioneering work tracking steel- head with the use of radio telemetry, From Mark I learned there are other ways - some equally fascinating - to track the mysterious ~ - comings and goings of Oncorhynchus Mykiss “” “and his anadromous cousins, Anyone who has spent some time on our rivers during spawning season will probably have stumbled upon a slender fluorescent piece of plastic cord about the diameter of a six weight fly line with an Alaskan address im- pressed upon it. These spaghettini-sized bits of flotsam are called spaghetti tags. The pinkish orange ones with Ketchican P.O. Box numbers are carried to our shores by O. Gorbuscha the tiny, but abundant pink salmon, presumably netted, tagged, then released by Alaskan fishers sponsored by the Alaskan fish and game depart- ment, Employing this technique fisheries folk can leam a few things about the migration and exploitation of the tagged fish, but the draw- backs of this technique are obvious: using spaghetti tags or anchor tags means using adult fish, and, of course, a large number of tags must be used to ensure an adequate return. Coded wire tags will yicld much more data. In this process small bits of wire etched with data concerning its finned transmitters are implanted in the nose of fry. The fin of the juvenile is then clipped whereupon it is sent on its way. Years later the fish may be caught or wash up on a beach where fisheries personnel are sorting through mushy salmon in what is calted a “dead pitch’’. Salmon recovered in these ways have their heads halved, and the halves halved, and so on, until the small data laden bit of wire is discovered then decoded with the aid of a mi- croscope to reveal a valuable retrospective of the fish's natal stream. Visible implant tags can be used in much the sume way as CWTs. These tags, also micro- scopically encoded, are implanted with the use of a syringe in the clear eye tissue of small fish. (Visualizing this process makes you want to blink, doesn’t it.) Another amazing way of marking fish is with the use of a pan jet inoculator loaded with fluo- rescent grit, If understand it correctly, the in- oculator blasts the pigment through the fish’s skin - or the inoculator’s, if he’s not careful. Tattooing, branding, sonic tags, radio transponders, and genelic markers have been used to track and identify fish. Matching fish with parasites that share their nursery streams has also been used, but most of these strategies require the death of the fish, tissue samples or, as in the case of genctic analysis, some kind of early capture of the fish. The latest technique for identifying discrete runs of fish borrows from the scrospace indus- try. When a glacier melts it ablates, as does the nose cone of a missile when re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. Now fisherics scientists have started burning tiny holes in the freshwater portion of fish scales. The bones and scales of a fish reflect it’s surroundings. The vapor, or acrosol, produced by this abjation is then ana- lyzed in a mass spectrometer, which enables scientists to determine the metal content of the scale by the light given off by the energy of the metal’s isotopes. A recent pilot program using the scales from Sustut, Morice, Zymoetz, and Babine steeltiead showed that by doing this elemental analysis with a mass spectrometer fish may be keyed to the systems from whence they sprang with something very near 100 per cent accuracy. TERRACE STANDARD. Calling all coaches! HEADS UP local athletes! Have you ever had a coach who you'd do just about anything for? Run that extra mile, shoot another hoop, skate just one more lap or catch just one more fly ball before the end of practice? If so, we want to hear from you! The Terrace Standard is once again as- lang you, the reader, to nominate your favorite coach for our second annual Coach of the Year contest. This year our panel of judges will be selecting one Coach of the Year and two honorable mentions. And that won’t be an easy task by any stretch of the imagination. Last time around 16 coaches were nominated and four were selected to the winner's chair. They were Bluebacks swim coach Mike Carlyle; Shannon Murdoch, coach of the Thornhill jr. girls volleyball and basket- ball teams; Bill Gook, coach of the Clarence Michael grade 7 girls and Skeena Jr. girls basketball teams; and Jorge Silva, coach of the Skeena Jr. boys basketball and girls volleyball teams. When the judges consider all of the nominees, they'll be looking at the fol- lowing: @ Respect for officials, opponents and parents and promoting the philosophy of fair play. @ Concern for the all-round develop- ment of the athletes and teaching guidelines for responsible conduct both on and off the playing field or surface. m Setting an example of positive coach- ing. i Showing the ability to improve both individual and team performances. The hard-working judges who will be considering all these points this year, are They inspire, organize, and make it all happen — and now it’s time to honour their contribution Skeena Mall manager Lynda Lafleur, the cily Parks and Recrealion department’s Shawn Krienke, and school trustee Laurie Mitchell. The winning coach will be honored with a beautiful, decorative plaque, while the runners up will each receive smaller ones. Entry forms can be found on page B16. All you have to do is complete one and drop it off at our new offices on Clinton St. or mail to it to 3210 Clinton St., Ter- race, V8G 5R2, Closing date for nominations is Friday, March 1, and the winners will be an- nounced in mid-March. We'll include the nomination form in issues between now and the closing date, and we'll also keep you updated on who’s being nominated. And even though we’re in the heart of the winter season, don’t forget about all of the coaches who put in hundreds of hours during the spring, summer and fall months. So, tear out the nomination form; use it yourself, or photo-copy it pass a few around to friends and co-workers. We’re looking to hearing from you! Curling Sleepless nights for weary curlers THE TERRACE courting rink was home to nearly 200 bleary- eyed, sleep-deprived curlers participating in the Terrace Legion Open Bonspiel, January 26-28. Rink Manager Keith Melanson said round-the-clock Play began at 7 p.m. Friday night and wrapped at about 2 pm. Sunday afternoon. ‘Sure it’s hard on the cur- lers,”? Melanson sald. “But time-wise, if we didn’t do It this way, we'd never finish.”’ ‘48 rinks participated in the Bonspiel, Melanson says only about four of them were from outside of Terrace. RESULTS A Event 1) Dave Dennis 2) Randy Hall 3) Jack Perry 4) Andrew Weissner B Event 1) John Veldman 2) John Evans 3) Ron Sparks 4) Henry Rauter C Event 1) John Kennedy 2) Gerald Robinson (Aiyansh) 3) Bud Kirkaldy 4) Jim Boguski (Kitimat) D Event 1) Lorne Kuemper 2) Ray Flaherty 3) Larry Burke 4) Roger Wilfen kkk The annual ladies Valentine Bonspiel goes this weekend, Feb- ruary 9-11. Round-the-clock starts at 7 p.m. Friday night, To inquire about entering a team, you can call the Terrace Curling Club at 635-5583. LINE IT UP! Terrace’s John Veldman eyes out the shot at last weekend's Legion Provincial Championships. The Larry Burke rink represented Terrace in regular play, while Veldman’s rink partici- pated in the seniors category. 638-7283 Making waves at home MEMBERS OF the Terrace Blueback Swim Club had 2 Chance to compete against some of their own at a devel- opmenial meet here on Janu- ary 28. Coach Mike Carlyle says swimmers aged 7 to 12 partici- Pated in the in-house meet.’ “It’s a way for coaches to see how the new swimmers are doing,’’ Carlyle says. ‘And it introduces the kids to what competitive swimming is like.”’ But he also siresses these types of meets a lot allow the kids to just relax and have fun. “In one of the fun events, the kids have to lie on their: backs, and read a newspaper while kicking to the other end of the pool,’* Carlyle says. “The goal is not to get the newspaper wet,’? 14 swimmers will be going to the Northern BC Winter Games in Prince George, while four senior boys will be at the Nationals in Calgary on the same weckend.