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Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. Here's our latest story... A job that will 'kick your butt' In order to participate in the surveys, Service snorkelers must be in great physical condition and are all swift-water trained and able to rescue themselves and others in serious situations. Here, biologist Travis Webster takes a selfie during a recent survey on Clear Creek. Credit: Travis Webster/USFWS   Physically grueling yet critical: snorkel surveys provide valuable information for restoring Chinook salmon, steelhead in California's Central Valley By John Heil August 28, 2017 Snorkeling for a living may sound like a lot of fun, but when it comes to Chinook salmon survey counts for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Red Bluff office, the work is actually quite demanding yet very important for persistence of the species and restoration of their habitats. "I definitely must stress that these surveys kick your butt, so I want to give props to the field crew," said R.J. Bottaro, supervisory fish biologist for the Red Bluff Fish and Wildlife Office, who worked the snorkel survey counts on Clear Creek and Battle Creek for 10 years. "It's every week so eventually you get bruises on your hips because you are hitting rocks. Your arms are all beaten up because you are swimming face first in the stream and you are coming up on rocks with sometimes poor visibility. You get moving pretty fast depending on how high the water is, and the variability of different flows can create a challenge." The snorkelers must be in great physical condition and are all swift water trained which means they must be able to rescue themselves and others in serious situations. Continue to full story...   Stay Connected with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region     This email was sent using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region · 2800 Cottage Way · Suite W-2606 · Sacramento, CA 95825