You’ve probably heard us talk about herring, but have you ever wondered if there are any other types of fish in the river? Ever wonder how many or where they are? Us too!
Way back in 2001, a study was published by USGS, in conjunction with a handful of local Massachusetts agencies, that examined the relations among stream habitat, fish communities, and hydrologic conditions in the Ipswich River. Through fish sampling, the study found that the fish community in the Ipswich River at that time consisted of primarily warm-water fish, dominated by pond-type fish. The figure below is taken from that report and shows all of the locations where fish samples were collected.
Then, in 2008, a round table discussion of fish-minded folks was held at IRWA’s Riverbend headquarters. This meeting touched on some big questions, such as:
What is the effect of water withdrawals and fluctuating river flows on our local fish population?
Do we have a “target” fish population? If so, what is that?
Fast forward to today and we are still thinking hard about these same questions – so, we thought to try and get some updated information by sampling many of those same locations in the map above for fish. The way we sample for those fish is by electrofishing, which is a technique that utilizes specific voltages of electricity to attract and temporarily stun fish in a stretch of river. Those fish are then collected, identified, documented, and counted. Some of the fish that we’ve found so far include:
- American eel
- Banded sunfish
- Golden Shiner
- Pumpkinseed
- Fallfish
This work is ongoing, so be on the lookout for more information and updates to come!
