Little Sackville River Digger Log Installation 2009 - The Atlantic ...

Electro-Fishing Survey on Little Sackville River July 2 2009
Crew Leader: Colin O’Neil
Crew: Tim Kelly, John‐William Brunner, Cyndi LeBlanc, Kate MacPhee
Water Quality
pH: 7.7
Water Temperature: 19.5
Weather: Cloudy
Equipment: Smith‐Root Model 15 POW Electrofisher
Voltage Setting: 300
Mode Switches: J‐5
Table 2. Electrofishing survey area
Electrofishing Section Average River Width* Electrofishing Section
Length
Electrofishing Section
Area
6.34m 151.83m 962.6m 2 (9.93 Units)
*Average width taken from 5 representative width measures over the area
Table 3. Fish Caught by Number and Density per Unit
Species Population Density (Units)
Atlantic salmon 48* 4.98
Brook trout 1* 0.10
American eel 53 5.50
Creek chub 57* 5.92
White sucker 33* 3.43
Common shiner 2* 0.21
*Only actual number of fish caught, population projection not possible
The electrofishing survey was performed to establish a benchmark in order to help
determine the effectiveness of restoration activities to be performed in this section of the Little
Sackville River. The electrofishing was performed over an area as listed in Table 2 and included
a variety of habitat areas including pools, riffles and runs. The electrofished section was in the
middle of the planned work area for this year, starting at the old digger log on Site 62
(44.75728°N, 63.67418°W) and extending to 15 meters upstream of site 58 (44.757770°N,
63.67580°W), just below the s‐turn. This area was picked as a representative sample of the
entire 2009 work area.
The electrofishing was performed using Zippen’s 1 removal method of population
estimation with three sweeps. This method consists of electrofishing the sample area three
times, counting the fish caught in each sweep then removing them from the sample area for the
duration of the survey.
1 Zippin, Calvin. “The Removal Method of Population Estimation.” Journal of Wildlife Management 22.1
(1958): 82‐90
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