[Guest3]

I had a blast this summer!

I worked with DEP and EPA through California University of Pennsylvania on the Great Rivers Assessment Program, figuring out the fish assemblage of the Mon and Allegheny Rivers. We electrofished from a boat.

This thing is impressive. 16 amps of current! There are several "kill switches" that are used. I'm testing one of them as part of the safety protocol in this picture.

The boat stays in the more sallow areas and moves slowly. We catch the fish with nets.

The species is recorded along with length and weight.

Genetic tissue sampling is collected for later analysis.

Small specimines are vouchered for later identification, and tissue analysis for PCB levels are collected. There were many other parameters associated with this study, including habitat, macroinvertebrate sampling, depth, wetted width, turbidity, chemistry...

In all, we found 33 species, not including some minnows that haven't been processed yet.

A similar study with gill nets done by Dr. Argent and Dr. Kimmel had 10 species not collected by my crew. We had 8 not collected by theirs- however, once the small fish (minnows, darters) are processed, that number will grow.

 

[Guest3]

Game fish I can give away- can't post the rest of the info until I publish.

Spotted bass
Smallmouth bass
Largemouth Bass
Rainbow Trout
Brown Trout
Walleye
Sauger
Saugeye
Yellow Perch
White Crappie
Rock bass
Pumpkinseed
Bluegill
Freshwater Drum
Channel Cat
Flathead Cat
Chain Pickerel
Longnose Gar (Threatened and Endangered species list. May not keep)

 

[always broke]

Sometimes work is just plain tough!

 

[Guest3]

Yep! Still fun!

 

[FLDBRED]

Great post!What is the most interesting thing you found? [if you can tell]

 

[Guest3]

WE had several species of threatened and endangered fish captured.

We also used a modified Missouri trawl for benthic sampling. Got some pink footed heel splitters (clams) in there! That was way cool!

Of all the fish we captured, though, the gar are most definately my favorite.

 

[FLDBRED]

That's neat!Are you going to do any other rivers? I noticed no muskies or northern pike.Any reason?

 

[Guest3]

They escape the electrical field. I had a pike come in, but it dove.

The gear selects toward some things and away from others.

 

[FLDBRED]

Thanks Gal,my daughter used to work for the EPA,one summer she worked on the Hudson River,I couldn't wait for her to get home from work to find out what they found.

 

[bzybee]

What parts of the Mon and Allegheny did you conduct this study, near Pgh. or upstream farther????

 

[Guest3]

The entire Mon from the point in Pitsburgh to West Virginia and all of the navagatable waters of the Allegeheny main stem from the point.

 

[danceswithbucks]

How does that work and not kill the fish. Been wandering seen them do it on tv.

 

[Guest3]

Fish have a different polarity than we do. It just basically stuns them. Kind of like when we put our tounge on a 9 volt.

 

[danceswithbucks]

O ok looks quite intresting to do. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Moss]

That's cool. I used to watch the PFC shock some area trout streams, i've seen some bruisers before

 

[huntman]

I'm a little envious Gal. I did quite a bit of shocking during grad school at Clarion, but it was only with the backpack shocker. Medium to small streams mostly, but some larger such as the upper Allegheny and French Ck-but only riffle areas of the larger two.

Lots of smaller fish (and wouldn't people be amazed at the number of different species of "minnows" there are). I would have loved to do some boat shocking for some fish with a little more size, but still had a great time.

..............and if I learned anything from grad school, breathable waders, with some slight holes in them, make for some memorable days shocking on the streams!

Nice pictures and certainly looks like fun.

 

[Borden811]

Amen to that! I did a good deal of shocking in college as well, with the backpack units. One day, the shoulder harness mounts both came unbolted at the same time somehow, and the whole backpack dropped off my back into the stream. Purely out of reaction I spun around, and reached in after it, with both arms. That was definately interesting for a few seconds, till the engine drowned out, lol

 

[Guest3]

Well, it's that time of year again. This year's project is the Allegheny River. Should be out there fairly regularly from now through the end of August or September!

We were going to start this week, but with the rain and mud, looks like its going to be next week sometime. Likely a good thing for me since I am just finishing up the doxycycline from the deer tick episode! I don't really want to get sunburned again like I did planting trees on the game lands a couple of weeks back!


I love field work. I couldn't take nor do I ever think I'd want a desk job!

 

[Donthewater]

Amen to that Kath!

We plan on sampling the Susquehanna next week. My finger's are crossed that the rain will hold off and the water levels will come down so I can get back out on the water. This summer I'm doing all the cuttin' of the fish... not the nettin'.

This is PA sampling though, so I have an in.

Are you still working on the Big River's Protocol?

 

[Guest3]

Yep. Last river to be done on that!

Gotta talk to you soon!

Have fun on the Susky! And don't forget to call all of the walleyes!