Day 6- Canoeing and Ice Cream

Today was our long canoe trip along the Kisky River. A professor from Duquesne University accompanied us and instructed us throughout the trip. We rode in a van down to the river and got in our canoes. We had to carry our lunches and other items in our canoe. We stopped periodically to collect samples of water, catch fish, and examine other plants and wildlife. The river seemed clean based on what we learned yesterday. We will use the samples in the laboratory this Friday. An interesting part of the trip was looking at the runoff from a mine compared to the water in an area without runoff. The runoff area was an orange color. We used seines to collect fish. Then we counted the number of each species we found and let the fish go. We saved some of the fish in a preservative. Most of the fish were small. They had various distinct features between the species. We also saw crawfish, various macro invertebrates, and salamanders. The rocks under the water were slippery and many people slipped into the water. Megan G. and Jen’s canoe tipped over, but unfortunately we did not see this happen, we only heard the laughs. The place where we stopped for lunch had a very steep shore and lots of people fell getting the canoes to shore. After our canoe trip, we dried off and headed over to Glen’s for ice cream. It was delicious! Today was a great day.