Rockfish Man – Dads Doing what they Love in Nature

Meet Eric Eisenhardt, fisheries biologist, specialist in Rockfish.  I have known Eric since he was 2.  Eric has always been an intelligent, knowledgeable and gracious person.  By the age of 19 Eric knew his passion was marine biology.  Eric has lived his personal and professional life in nature studying the ocean and its inhabitants.  Eric has lived on fish packing boats in Alaska, and dove under the ice in Antarctica, all in the pursuit of research.  Eric is a very hands on sort of guy, so when I say spending his life in nature what I really mean is spending his life underwater.  Because underwater is where fish live.  Underwater is where we see real live specimens where we record their sizes, shapes, colors, variations, habitats, numbers and behavior.

Eric was kind enough to dawn his diving mask and give us a real life demonstration of how he records Rockfish in nature.  The setting is his back yard on San Juan Island off the coast of Washington State.  Although this hill side is above water, it is easy to envision Eric in a real underwater setting here because, many of the areas were he records fish are sloped rocky underwater hill sides.

Aside from scuba gear, Eric uses all home made equipment for his Rockfish data gathering expedition.  For instance his pole for measuring area covered and fish size is simply made of PVC pipe with a ruler attached to the end.

The following is a demonstration of how Eric records information about fish in the wild.

1.  Eric and a colleague collect data as a team.  Eric attaches the end of a 30 yard tape measure to his waist.  His colleague holds the other end of the tape measure.

2.  Eric then proceeds forward in a straight line looking for Rockfish, while his colleague remains in the same spot.

3.  When Eric spots a Rockfish within arms reach he holds out his pole and measures the fish.  Click here to see Eric in action in a real underwater photo.

4.  Eric then records the type of fish, size and other details on his PVC wrist pipe.  He uses a special underwater paper to write on with a normal pencil. The paper is secured onto the wrist cylinder with electrical tape.

5.  Eric continues recording fish till he has extended the measuring tape to its full length.  At this point his colleague will swim to Eric reeling the tape in, and the process starts again.  This way the divers can systematically cover a rectangle of ocean space;  30 feet long, by 12 feet wide (6 feet of Eric’s arm span plus 3 feet of pole held from the hand on either side = 12 feet)

When I asked Eric if he every had trouble distinguishing fish under water he said, “not really, you can tell by their dorsal fins.”  Oddly enough this was the same advice that Daniel Beard dispensed over 100 years ago.

What struck me most about this demonstration was how excited Eric was to tell us about his work.  I’d like to encourage Seth to find a career, or even a hobby that he feels as passionately about as Eric feels about the study of fish.  Eric fits gracefully into the natural world and makes a living at it.  He interacts with civilization as much as is necessary to get grants and spread the good news of his findings, but for the most part he lives an ocean paced life, rich in fisherman, boat captains, scientists and environmentalists, all of whom admire the sea.

For all you craft mamas who have gotten to the end here and are awaiting your bling.  Don’t forget to visit the colage of Diane 0′Leary ~ Black Rockfish