Week 6 - NRP, Seine and Aquatic Bug Surveys

Type:
Region: Various
Location: South River, Upper Potomac

This week at DNR was a little different because I spent Monday and Tuesday with Natural Resources Police. I shadowed Officer Brandon Garvey, who covers South River and surrounding areas in Anne Arundel County and PG County. On Monday, we were disappointed by the emptiness of most of the piers, marinas, and fishing spots that we checked. The few violations that we did encounter were mostly recreational crabbers caught with female and undersized crabs. I learned that the fine for 1-5 female crabs is $150. Some of the people who received these tickets found this appalling, especially when in possession of only one female crab. The laws made to protect the crab population are serious, however, and the consequences surely represent that. Later that day, we met up with Lt. Beth Mauk and went to the Southern District Station of Anne Arundel County Police to talk to detectives and hopefully link a series of boat robberies. I got to listen in on this interesting process as the two law enforcement offices worked together to link and close several cases.

On Tuesday we went out on boat patrol and came across a speeding boater, and some commercial crabbers who set a great example with their organized and safe practices. We kept a close eye on other boaters and public piers and then continued on to Sandy Point State Park. I was told by Officer Garvey this park needed to be closely monitored by Natural Resources Police. When we arrived, we immediately came across a recreational crabber with nine undersized crabs and two females out of 13 crabs total. He didn't seem to understand he had done anything wrong and displayed a particularly negative reaction to his ticket. Despite these low points on the job, Natural Resources Police stay committed to their cause. I really enjoyed my experience with Officer Garvey and I have a new appreciation for NRP and what they do to protect and preserve natural resources for everyone to enjoy.

On Wednesday, I joined John Mullican's crew to help with a seine survey at two locations on the Upper Potomac near Hagerstown and along the West Virginia state line. First, I recorded the number of fish of each species caught in the seine. We seined three times at each of the sites at both locations and I recorded our numbers under three hauls and the length of any young smallmouth bass we found. We seined along the river in small pools where we had some luck, but less smallmouth bass than we were hoping for. We caught spottail and spotfin shiners, lots of bluntnose minnows, tesselleated darters, fallfish, some longear sunfish and golden redhorse to name just some of the species. John showed me some of the more distinct species we found, pointing out the unique longear sunfish and banded killifish.

Afterwards, I helped Josh with a survey identifying aquatic bugs. This same survey was completed in 2009 and this year, it's due for an update. He started each sample off with a "kick test" where he would kick up small rocks and the ground beneath them to stir up the bugs living underneath. He held a net in place to collect the swimming bugs which we later put through a three-tiered strainer to separate the sediment and bugs into different sizes. With tweezers, we picked out every bug we could find and put them all in a small jar of alcohol to be identified in the lab later. I learned that the types of bugs that are found say a lot about a body of water. Unlike fish, bugs are much more sensitive to their environment, especially levels of pollution. Small worms that may eventually become mosquitos or something similar, can live in higher levels of pollution, so lots of worms are not a good sign. Diversity among aquatic bugs is ideal and indicates a healthy aqutic ecosystem. Picking bugs wasn't all that bad and overall, I enjoyed my time contributing to these surveys at the Upper Potomac.