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| Near Karpinisi... (photo from the Center for Environmental Education http://kpe-karpen.eyr.sch.gr/) |
Karpenisi Center for Environmental Education
January 15,16,17 2016
We had a wonderful trip teaching and electrofishing at Karpenisi in Evritania once again - visiting the same site we fished back on the 9th and 10th of March 2012 to look for trout.
Karpenisi is a mountain town about 300 kms north of Athens, at 960 meters elevation. It is totally enclosed by the Mountains of Roumeli - the southernmost flank of the Pindos Range (an extension of the Dinaric Alps). The rivers and streams flow westwards here -part of the great Acheloos basin- and there is lots and lots of water; and very thick forests everywhere.
Here the local Environmental Education Center hosted a huge group of school teachers - about 70 participants (!!) in a seminar of the educational network called "Fauna in Danger". I focused on fish but some really important celebs from other fields included Costas Papaconstantinou (fragmentation), Charitakis Papaioannou (chamois), Vassiliki Kati (wilderness, birds), Christos Thomaidis (rock partridge), and veteran envi-educators Manolis Kopanakis and Stelios Sylaiounis. Some spouses and children were also with us so the group was really big.
The weather was horrible! Rain, rain, cold rain! But we all learned so much from the experience.
I was looking to get some fin samples of the tout. The local trout belongs to a range restricted species now called West Balkan Trout or Salmo fariodes. We found some at a spring-fed tributary stream which we had visited in March 2012 but this time only juvenile fishes, a year old, where found. It was surprising they were only about 10 to 12 cm in size and no large fish in sight. We worked hard.
Some random shots taken mostly be my spouse Vassiliki Vlami are posted bellow.
