Electrofishing...Zap, zap..FISH!!!

So I ditched the office on Friday to go electrofishing with the aquatic research section at work. Then I went out again on Saturday because I am nuts like that.

Essentially, electrofishing involves rigging boats each with a positive charge on the front and a negative charge on the back. Then you place two people with nets on long poles at the front of each boats and as fish are stunned by the electric current, they scoop them up and put them in a tub on the boat.

After a half mile or so, the boats pull over to give the netters a break from hauling in fish, and the haul is processed. You measure, weigh, tag, and record the fish so that the population and community distribution can be estimated.

We were really hoping to see a pikeminnow, but no such luck. I was lucky enough to catch a few razorback suckers and one bonytail chub. Those are endangered fish by the way.

For my part, I was a netter on river right the first day and river center the second day. I also did the record keeping when we stopped to process a haul. Day two we had an extra small crew, so I also did some of the fin clipping to mark fish we'd captured so that we knew that we'd already captured them if we caught them again later.

My back and arms have been sooooooo sore from netting and hauling in fish. It was, however, one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life. It was awesome, and I got to see a bonytail chub up close and personal. Absolutely amazing.