Aug 2004
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This Month in Yellowstone
Streaming Fish

During the last few days of July, the Yellowstone fishery biologists began testing their underwater camera and sensing equipment. Pat Bigelow, Joe Facendola, and Brad Olszewski went to Fishing Bridge and set the camera out in two different water depths to test the camera, a new bracket, and related software.

It was a warm, sunny day and the camera proved to work very well. Set in shallow water near a log, it captured some great footage of cutthroat trout fry hiding near the log. In about 10 feet of water, the camera was used to capture both adult cutthroat trout and longnose sucker footage. Visitors at the bridge loved the opportunity to see a view of the fish from a different angle. They could see the fish on the bottom from the bridge, but during the filming they were also able to see them up-close on a laptop computer that was being used to capture the video images.

Ultimately this underwater equipment will be used to map, videotape, and take temperature readings around possible lake trout spawning beds. Lake trout are an introduced species that have the potential to wreak havoc on the native cutthroat trout population that is an important food source of bears, river otters, osprey, and eagles.