The Wrack

I cannot believe its been six months since I left the Wells Reserve at the end of my MCC term. Last November, having spent the summer and fall gaining valuable field experience, I headed home to pursue my next career goal: admission to graduate school. It was a daunting but surprisingly natural transition, as my experiences at the Reserve prepared me well for this next phase.

In the summer of 2009, Marissa Hammond came to us as a wide-eyed freshman with little experience in research science. She has blossomed into a NOAA scholarship award winner who has been accepted into a highly respected graduate program in fisheries management and policy.

Goal

Determine the presence or absence of diadromous rainbow smelt and appropriate habitat within the restored area of Shoreys Brook

Project Period

March and April 2012

On a classic October morning, a research team heads to the EliotSouth Berwick line, where a private landowner has opened his property for a Wells Reserve study of fish and fish habitat. Parking the pickup at the end of a long hayfield, the five gather up gear and step into a middle-aged pine-oak forest, then head downslope past ferns and toppled trees till the trail goes wet underfoot, the canopy breaks, and they stand at the edge of Shoreys Brook. This is headquarters for the next few hours. It is one of eight sites along the brooks 4.3 miles being surveyed for resident and migratory fish, and their habitat, in advance of a planned dam removal downstream.

Aboard the EPA Ocean Survey Vessel BOLD to do ichthyoplankton monitoring at sea to supplement the nearly weekly ichthyoplankton tows at Wells Harbor.

Here are a few portraits shared by Jeremy Miller from the 2008 ichthyoplankton surveys.

Just one of many projects underway in the research department at the Wells Reserve this summer is the environmental monitoring of the Mousam and Kennebunk Rivers in support of an ongoing initiative, the Mousam & Kennebunk Rivers Alliance (MKRA).

In the past couple of weeks, it's been hard not to notice the bright yellow plastic cards that have appeared in clumps of vegetation. Yesterday, I caught up with the guy who has been hanging and collecting them, field research entomologist Phil Stack. He filled me in; they are traps for catching fruit flies.

Fishing has begun on the Saco River. On four dates in late June, researchers set fyke nets at eight sites along the river. They surveyed day and night and, except for one frightening microburst, had excellent conditions for field work. Hundreds of fish and shellfish were caught, identified, measured, and released. This project, focusing mainly on fish using the salt marsh, is part of a collaborative study with the University of New England that looks at the effects of upland land use on the river ecosystem.

The Marine Invader Monitoring and Information Collaborative (MIMIC) is a network of trained volunteers, scientists, and state and federal workers who monitor marine invasive species along the Gulf of Maine. The Wells Reserve coordinates Maine's program.