As we watch the natural forces of water, wind, rain, tumbling rocks and woody debris sculpt our new Carpenter Creek estuary, we are starting to get the first glimpses of how the fish, birds and other aquatic life are using the “new slough.”

Many birds feed in the shallows on either side of the new bridge. Fish, crabs, shrimp and new shellfish are finding their way into new or reworked parts of Appletree Cove and estuary south of the bridge. It is time to start counting them!

As part of the post-construction monitoring, Stillwaters volunteers and any other interested resident of the glorious north end of Kitsap can participate in this exciting exploration. On July 7, there will be a series of seining efforts to look at what fish and other critters are living in the new pools in this system.

We will start the exploration by using dip nets and two kinds of seines (beach and purse), sampling during different stages of the tide. This will involve folks holding nets, pulling them together to capture fish, and identifying and counting the fish, crabs and other organisms we find. There are also jobs such as filling buckets and releasing the fish after they are caught.

The idea for the seining is to observe and sample this habitat to see how it evolves into a more natural, stable community. The observations will last 10 years. We will look at the diversity of fish and other creatures.

Along with this effort to look at critters, we will also sample the water and the sediment to learn what we can from them.

Part of the efforts July 7 will also involve a snorkel survey. When the tide is high, along with netting fish, we will try to observe their behavior first hand by snorkeling and photographing the fish.

One of the tricky parts of this effort is to be an observer, but not to change the environment by your presence. Just being a big new presence in the water can spook the fish and make them do things they would not normally do. We are hoping to see the fish’s normal behaviors of schooling or foraging for food while experimenting with ways to observe without being intrusive.

So far this year, fisheries scientists have seen small pink salmon in the Kitsap waters. In our study area we see many sculpins darting around as we walk near the water. We have seen what we believe was a large school of shrimp along with many crabs in the pools that are forming.

Another abundant resident of the slough is Callianassa Californiensis, or ghost shrimp. There may also be some Upogebia pugettensis, blue mud shrimp. They look similar in many ways but their color and the shapes of their hard shell, the carapace, along with the shape of their first set of legs, distinguish them.  Local fishermen come to the slough to dig these shrimp for use in steelhead fishing.

I hope you will consider coming down and observing or helping out when we do these or future fish and critter surveying. There is much work to do. Come join in the fun of exploration!

— Betsy Cooper is a board member and stream monitor at Stillwaters Environmental Education Center.