Sampling

Type: Nontidal
Region: Eastern
Location: Elkton landing

I love my job as the Fisheries statistician! Analyzing data beats being on the water on 25- and 95-degree days! However, I also enjoy heading out with our field biologists to see how those data are collected. Recently, I helped with some ichthyoplankton sampling for the Fisheries Habitat and Ecosystems Program. These folks call themselves "The Impervious Serfs" because their work has found such strong relationships between increased impervious surface area (as development increases) and depressed fish numbers.

Well, the Serfs were busy plowing other fields on May 10 (so to speak) so Jim Thompson (coordinator of the Fish Passage program) and I headed up to sample northeast Maryland rivers for baby yellow perch. This survey is different from the young-of-year survey later in the summer, as we were only looking for presence/absence. We launched from Anchor Marina to sample the North East River and from Elkton Landing to sample the Elk River. I had never been to Elkton Landing � what a little jewel!

You can see the special net we used in the photo. (photo 1) We saw tiny little yellow perch, river herring, and shad, as well as the tinier copepods that they eat. Jim could identify the fish species (photo 2) but I was HOPELESS. (photo 3) I did better at taking water quality data. (photo 4) My ineptitude launched us into a discussion about how diverse Fisheries work is. Jim says he would rather be shot than be forced to work with numbers at a computer all day and I replied that I would rather be hung than forced to head out on a boat before dawn/ freezing cold/broiling hot/raining/snowing to deal with fish that are slimy and trying to spine me (like the Fisheries biologists). But we happily agreed that we all depend on each others' expertise to protect Maryland's fish while maximizing fishing.

Anyway, my day out was beautiful, I learned a lot, AND I got to see my first live "Maryland" lamprey.

By the way, the "Impervious Serfs" depend on volunteers to survey the Severn and Bush rivers and do ichthyoplankton sampling in streams. So if these photos look interesting, give Jim Uphoff or Margaret McGinty a call.

I'll send in more pictures soon,
Linda Barker

Dr. Barker is the Fisheries statistician and works in the depths of the Tawes building in Annapolis, happily toiling alongside her math-centric cohorts in the Analysis and Assessment Program.