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Mapping & Surveying: Monitoring the Active Replenishment of Subsiding Habitat Project (MARSH) - Fish Survey
FISH SURVEY METHODS
Seasonal fish surveys were conducted within an emergent marsh system (Lee Marsh) on the Pamunkey River, Virginia from July 2001. Sampling occurred with modified Fyke Nets for two consecutive days in two sites within Lee marsh. The fyke nets were modified to efficiently sample systems that drain tidally. Each fyke net was placed at the mouth of a tidal creek within the emergent marsh system at peak flood tide, allowed to fish for the duration of the tidal cycle and retrieved at low tide after the creek had drained. Sample dates for Lee Marsh were 14-15 August 2001, 9-10 December 2001 and 7-8 March 2002. The sites were chosen within Lee Marsh to coincide with an experimental dredge location conducted to enhance marsh accretion.
Auxiliary sampling occurred in an adjacent emergent marsh system (Hill Marsh), which exhibits different hydrologic patterns (complete drainage of interior marsh creeks rarely occurs) than Lee Marsh (complete tidal drainage of interior creeks) net collections occurred on 25 September 2001 and 7-8 March 2002.
After each fyke net retrieval, fish were identified, counted, measured (total length) and released. Those fish that could not be identified were preserved and taken back to the laboratory for identification.
Typical Fish Community within Lee and Hill marshes
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White Perch Morone Americana
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American Eel Anguilla rostrata
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Atlantic Silverside Menidia menidia
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Spot Leiostomus xanthurus
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Atlantic Croaker Micropogonias undulatus
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Hogchoker Trinectes maculatus
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Gizzard Shad Dorosoma cepedianum
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Herring Alosa spp.
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Bay Anchovy Anchoa mitchilli
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Killifish Fundulus spp.
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Catfish Ictalurus spp.
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Spottail Shiner Notropis hudsonius
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Mosquitofish Gambusia affinis
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Mummichug Fundulus heteroclitus
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