Fish Populations, Following a Drought, in the Neosho and Marais des Cygnes Rivers of Kansas — John Shaqi
Fish Populations, Following a Drought, in the Neosho and Marais des Cygnes Rivers of KansasDeacon, James E.
Science
Fish Populations, Following a Drought, in the Neosho and Marais des Cygnes Rivers of Kansas
Deacon, James E.
Fish populations; Freshwater fishes -- Kansas -- Population dynamics -- Stocks
The principal collecting-device used was a portable (600-watt, 110-volt,
A. C.) electric shocker carried in a 12-foot aluminum boat. Two 2 ×
2-inch wooden booms, each ten feet long, were attached to the front of
the boat in a "V" position so they normally were two feet above the
surface of the water. A nylon rope attached to the tips of the booms
held them ten feet apart. Electrodes, six feet long, were suspended from
the tip and center of each boom, and two electrodes were suspended from
the nylon rope. The electrodes extended approximately four feet into the
water. Of various materials used for electrodes, the most satisfactory
was a neoprene-core, shielded hydraulic hose in sections two feet long.
These lengths could be screwed together, permitting adjustment of the
length of the electrodes with minimum effort. At night, a sealed-beam
automobile headlight was plugged into a six-volt D. C. outlet in the
generating unit and a Coleman lantern was mounted on each gunwale to
illuminate the area around the bow and along the sides of the boat (Pl.
3a). In late summer, 1959, a 230-volt, 1500-watt generating unit,
composed of a 115-volt, 1500-watt Homelite generator was used. It was
attached to a step-up transformer that converted the current to 230
volts. The same booms described above were used with the 230-volt unit,
with single electrodes at the tip of each boom.
A 5.5-horsepower motor propelled the boat, and the stunned fish were
collected by means of scap nets. Fishes seen and identified but not
captured also were recorded. On several occasions fishes were collected
by placing a 25-foot seine in the current and shocking toward the seine
from upstream.
The shocker was used in daylight at all six stations in the three years,
1957-'59. Collections were made at night in 1958 and 1959 at the middle
Neosho station and in 1959 at the lower Neosho station.
_Seines_
Seines of various lengths (4, 6, 12, 15, 25 and 60 feet), with
mesh-sizes varying from bobbinet to one-half inch, were used. The
4-, 12-, and 25-foot seines were used in the estimation of relative
abundance by taking ten hauls with each seine, recording all species
captured in each haul, and making a total count of all fish captured in
two of the ten hauls. The two hauls to be counted were chosen prior to
each collection from a table of random numbers. Additional selective
seining was done to ascertain the habitats occupied by different
species.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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