On my drive in to work this morning, I watched a large group of geese flying in their "V formation" migrating to warmer climates in the south. As I watched them
fly, my mind wandered back to the beautiful redwood forest and I wondered what kind of animals migrated through the Redwood Forest.
Just wait until you hear the answer!
Gray Whale migration
California gray whales are famous for their extraordinary 9,000 to 12,000 mile round trip migration along the west coast. The whales make this journey to take advantage of the huge amounts of food available in Arctic region . In the summer they travel to the warm waters of the Gulf of California to birth their young. It had been assumed that the entire population of California gray whales migrated the whole way from Baja California, (which is actually in Mexico) to the Bering and Chukchi Seas non-stop.
In the last few decades, however, whale scientists have noted that not all gray whales migrate the entire way. Some stop and spend their summer feeding far from the rest. These whales belong to what scientists call the Pacific Coast Feeding Aggregation. Gray whales, unlike all the other baleen whales, do not feed in open ocean. Instead, they feed off the ocean bottom along shore areas.
The most southern area of the Gray Whale Pacific Coast Feeding Aggregation region is right off the coast of Redwood National and State Parks!!
Peak gray whale migration is typically March through May. Great places to look for gray whales in California include: Crescent Beach Overlook (Crescent City, Calif.) and Klamath River Overlook (Requa, Calif.)
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| More of our Oregon whale watching |
Salmon are the superstars of Redwood National and State Parks streams.
Most salmon species spend the majority of their lives at sea but during November through February, streams fill with the run of spawning fish. Coho salmon have a three year life cycle, with juvenile fish entering the ocean at one year of age and returning two years later to where they were born to spawn.Coho salmon populations in the Redwood National Parks rivers are substantially reduced from historic times. In Redwood Creek, habitat quality has declined because of severe floods that moved large amounts of soil and other sediment from hill slopes that were logged. Logging also removed stream side vegetation. The large amount of deposited sediment and higher water temperatures due to a lack of shade has made some streams an unsuitable habitat for Coho.
Because of the reduction in Coho Salmon, the species is currently listed as a threatened by the National Marine Fisheries Service in Redwood Creek and the Klamath and Smith Rivers.
Habitat Matters! Because coho require both high quality ocean and freshwater stream habitats, they are excellent indicators of watershed health.
Coho only thrive when the amount of nutrients and food available at sea is high, and when their stream habitat is below 70 degrees with unobstructed water flow, high levels of dissolved oxygen, and a diversity of habitats such as ripples, deep pools, and backwater areas. Considering all that, it seems their existence is very fragile.
The National Park Services has designed a restoration project at Muir Beach that will create side channels and other protected areas outside of the main stream channel to shelter juvenile salmon and increase their chances of survival.
Autumn in Wisconsin also brings the Lake Michigan Chinook and Coho migration offshore to spawn in streams. Chinook are the first to arrive, spawning from mid-September into early October, while Coho and Brown trout begin spawning in early October and continue to the end of the month.
Here is something that I did not know. I was surprised to learn that salmon are not native to the Great Lakes. Coho and Chinook salmon were originally brought to Lake Michigan to control alewife populations. Alewives are a type of small herring.
I can remember going downtown with my mom and my brothers on the bus for the 4th of July fireworks along Lake Michigan's lakefront in the early 1970's. We used to sit on a old cement ledge near the War Memorial Center. I can remember the thousands of dead alewives laying on the shoreline. Man, did they stink! I also remember how my mom and everyone else around seemed to just kind of accept the dead fish and the smell as normal, but I knew, even then, that all the dead fish along the shoreline was not normal.
Over the years, salmon fishing in Lake Michigan has turned into a billion dollar fishing industry.
Here is the headline from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today:
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| Journal Article |
According to Jeff: The original Wingra spillway, or dam as it's referred to, was constructed in 1919, has become a musky magnet during the past 20 years since musky have become more prevalent on the Madison chain. A DNR study found the dam to need extensive repairs a decade ago. A new dam & viewing platforms were built and completed in 2009. The muskies swim up Wingra Creek from Lake Monona toward the dam. A viewing platform allows numerous people to search the shallows for lurking muskies while the current flow, water temperature and longer days brings them to the area. This viewing experience always fluctuates but usually runs around the 1st to 2nd week in April. All of the Lake Monona muskies are stocked fish and come up to the area to spawn. No natural reproduction has ever been documented by the DNR in the spillway area.
Changes occur throughout the month of September in weather patterns, water temperature, and plant growth as well as the behavior of both fish and game. Shorter days and longer nights begin to cool a lake’s water temperature as well as trigger muskies to move away from deeper open waters into shallower locations. All fish, including muskies sense changes in day length as well as the drop in water temperature. Muskies instinctively want to get away from this less stable environment and begin to migrate inward.
Because of this movement, fishing experts say the best time to hook that musky is in the fall. So grab your musky pole...Happy fishing!
