Fish, Fish, and More Fish

Hello everyone, we hope your week was as fun as ours! This was our electrofishing week, where the whole crew went out to the streams to work together collecting data on the different types of fish we find in our streams as well as their abundance. 

We typically electrofish the lower and upper half of each site to see if the invasive rainbow trout are outcompeting the native brook trout and where they are located. It's important to monitor the fish populations within our streams to better understand the interactions between each other and their environment, and if there looks to be issues with a population, we can determine where the problem stems from and alter our restoration practices to suit their needs. Throughout our surveyed streams, we found more brook trout than rainbow trout, and we noticed some had scars along their sides. Few looked like they were caused by bird talons while others were caused by bigger fish trying to eat them, which we found pretty interesting to see. 

Our electro fisher was paired with two “netters” and one person to hold the bucket of fish that were caught. That bucket was then brought to the bank to have a few drops of clove oil put in their water to act as a sedative. This made the process of measuring the fish much more efficient and reduces the stress of the experience for the fish, before placing them into a large black bucket of clean water to wake back up before putting them back in the stream. We do three passes up the stream for the most sufficient data. Overall, our crew had a super fun week together and we can't wait for the next!

We would also like to remind everyone, don't forget to register for our event “Swim for the South Shore” happening on August 15th! Have a great weekend everyone.

Love, SSWA