Associated People Kate Reichert Alex van Boer
On Monday, Dr. John Lichter of Bowdoin College was the featured speaker for our monthly Lunch 'n Learn. He shared his research and posed many intriguing quesitons: What ecosystem traits provide resilience after a disturbance? Is there a link between social and ecological resilience? How much do ecosystems depend on diversity? Dr. Lichter went on to give an interesting historical account of the Kennebec River system:
1710s: Overfishing was happening
1720s: Land was being cleared on a large scale
1730s: Dams were installed
1780s: Agriculture was well established
1860s: Water pollution was happening on an industrial scale
1960s: Invasive species were present
Between 1930 and 1970, dissolved oxygen levels dropped in the Kennebec River, but the levels rebounded significantly following the passage of the Clean Water Act. Although this is encouraging data, Dr. Lichter reminded the audience that there is still a long way to go in terms of recovery efforts.
There were once 20 million herring in the Kennebec River, whereas now there are only 3 million. This drop is related more to obstacles in fish passage (i.e. dams), rather than water quality. The hypothesis is that dams in Maine are preventing the full recovery of fish. An individual female alewife lays 150,000 eggs, so the impact of her (and the many other alewives swimming alongside her) not being able to pass dams upstream to lay her eggs is huge.
A piece of Dr. Lichter's talk that I found most interesting was his presentation of data taken at Benton Falls on the Sebasticook River. When a pump was installed to pump water over the dam at that site, it also sent fish over the dam, increasing their spawning numbers. Later, when a fish elevator was installed to lift fish over the dam, the spawning numbers increased again. Finally, when the dam was removed, the number of fish increased even more.
Before heading back to Bowdoin, Dr. Lichter posed for this photograph with two of his former Bowdoin students who now work at the Reserve: Kate Reichert, Environmental Education Fellow; and Alex Van Boer, Research Intern
In the summer of 2009, Marissa Hammond came to us as a wide-eyed UNE freshman with little experience in research science. She has since blossomed into a NOAA scholarship award winner who has been accepted into a highly respected graduate program in fisheries management and policy. Here is what she had to say about how the Wells Reserve played a part in that journey…
I am currently a senior at the University of New England, where I’m pursuing a degree in Marine Biology and Environmental Studies. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to intern at the Wells Reserve studying larval and juvenile fish in the Webhannet Estuary.
For years now, we've been handing out Seafood Watch pocket guides so people can make more careful decisions about what fish and shellfish to buy or avoid. The Monterey Bay Aquarium publishes regional guides, so the information is tailored to residents of the northeast, for example.
Now the aquarium has made ocean-friendly seafood recommendations even more convenient for smartphone users with its Seafood Watch app for iPhone or Android. At our house, the printed "pocket guide" often lived under a magnet on the refrigerator or got pierced by a thumbtack on the bulletin board, rarely making the trip to market. Now we will have the critical data in hand, as our mobile devices don't get left behind.
Associated People Jeremy Miller Hannah Wilhelm
Our larval fish monitoring involves netting critters measured in millimeters, preserving them, and inventorying them under a microscope. Here are a few portraits shared by Jeremy Miller from the 2008 surveys. Watch for a report from the Ocean Survey Vessel Bold, where Hannah Wilhelm is currently assisting with larval fish (and nutrient) sampling during a one-week mission in the Gulf of Maine.
Associated People Darcie Ritch
I am on board the EPA Ocean Survey Vessel BOLD, with the opportunity to do ichthyoplankton (larval fish) monitoring at sea to supplement the nearly weekly ichthyoplankton tows my fellow intern Amanda has been doing this summer at Wells Harbor. We are interested in comparing the types of larval fish that are present a little way out to sea with those present in the harbor. Darcie Ritch, another summer intern who is working on her master’s degree at Antioch New England, is hoping to use the larval fish data I’m helping to collect on this trip in her masters project. Here is one of the first creatures we caught, a tiny lobster.
The EPA’s OSV BOLD is dedicated to environmental research at sea. This specific trip goes from Boston to Casco Bay and back, and is focused on collecting water samples to help establish nutrient limits (the maximum quantities of nitrates and phosphates in the water that will still allow healthy animal and plant life and clean water for fishing, kayaking, and other uses) for coastal waters.
To learn more about the OSV BOLD, and to see more photos and some videos of research at sea, check out http://epa.gov/boldkids/!
Associated People Kate Reichert
Last Tuesday, June 7, the Reserve's education team made a morning low tide visit to Laudholm Beach as part of new staff training. They were treated to a most amazing sighting of a bright red, approximately 15 inch long Sea Raven! David Word, a Wells Reserve visitor from Kentucky, was nearby and had his camera. Below are two images of the fish that David so generously emailed today.
In the Gulf of Maine, sea ravens are normally found in 6-300 feet of water--not the 1-2 feet of water in the Laudholm Beach tide pool where this one was spotted. It is a mystery as to why this fish ventured so far from its preferred habitat. The hope is that it was brought "home" several hours after this sighting, with the next high tide.
Associated People Ashley Pinkham Susan Bickford
About the Project
The Maine Road-Stream Crossing Survey determines where poor design or degraded condition of road culverts hampers the ability of fish to access upstream or downstream habitat. This information helps project partners to set priorities for restoring critical fish habitat sites.
For this project, Wells Reserve workers visited all road-stream culverts along the Kennebunk River, from its mouth on the border of Kennebunk and Kennebunkport to its far reaches in Lyman.
About the Project
In 2008, a group of citizens and conservation groups met to discuss the possibility of returning native migratory fish runs to the Mousam and Kennebunk Rivers. Out of these discussions a plan was formulated to gather information about the historic and current condition of these fish and to begin to spread the word to the local communities. In 2009, Maine Rivers hosted a conference where river stakeholders came together to discuss the rivers and share knowledge. At the same time, the Wells Reserve began monitoring the current status of migratory fish in the rivers.
Associated People Michele Dionne
Michele Dionne, Director of Research at the Reserve, has an ongoing collaboration with Dr. Celia Chen at Dartmouth College to study how mercury moves through the salt marsh system. When some of her lab crew headed out to catch Atlantic silversides to be tested for mercury content, we got some of these small fish instead, which we originally thought must be herring.
Spanning over the subtidal zone, harbor docks make convenient places to see fish in their natural setting. And fussing with fishing gear isn’t even necessary.
Now that spring has arrived and all sorts of new sights, sounds and smells have emerged from the forests and wetlands — it can be difficult to identify flora and fauna in its fleeting blossoms, migration, or courting display. These harbingers can last from a few weeks to just one evening. I find it fascinating to witness life taking advantage of what was just recently frozen solid.
Wells Harbor is a fantastic place to see local species of fish. Its wooden piers and docks provide human access above a subtidal zone (a place that never fully drains during low tide) and often 'harbors' schools of juvenile and adult fishes. The pilings and docks provide structure for many species of plants and animals that attach themselves to the substrate and provide habitat for many invertebrate species, amphipods and copepods in particular, which find shelter within this "fouling" community
What's a teleost? Let's see what Wikipedia has to offer...
Teleostei is one of three infraclasses in class Actinopterygii, the ray-finned fishes. This diverse group, which arose in the Triassic period, includes 20,000 extant species in about 40 orders. The other two infraclasses, Holostei and Chondrostei, are paraphyletic.
Now is the time of the year where many animals head south to warmer climates for the winter. Birds seem to show the most familiar behavior, such as flocks of Canada geese in the "V" formation flying over head. It's as emblematic as the colorful tree foliage or waking to see that first crisp frost. These are signs of autumn's arrival as well as encroaching cold weather.
Showing blog posts tagged fish: 1–5 of 14
