All of the previous pictures were provided by the Water Management Team of the Columbia River Fisheries Program Office.
This blog submitted by Courtney Newlon.
Monday, August 29, 2011
The Walla Walla River basin...it's not just for bull trout...
All of the previous pictures were provided by the Water Management Team of the Columbia River Fisheries Program Office.
This blog submitted by Courtney Newlon.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
A teachable moment...
This summer I helped out with a summer school field trip to Steigerwald National Wildlife Refuge. Twenty-two students in high school were enrolled in the program. Some needed the credit, some wanted something to do, and some just wanted to hang out with their friends.
We had three activities lined out for them: birding, plant id, and aquatic insect id and water testing. The morning was spent birding and looking at plants. Both sessions were sucessful with many species of both birds and plants identified. After lunch, we got into the water in search of aquatic insects. A couple of students remained dry and instead opted for testing the water. Aside from the expected catch of stoneflies and mayflies, we stirred up a few lamprey ammocoetes which were burrowed in the shallows of the creek. I took this opportunity to teach the students about the life history of lamprey and why they are so important. The kids were pretty fascinated by the animals.
After releasing our catch of insects and lamprey, we headed to the buses, some wetter than others. We didn't care though because this day was one of the first days of warm sunny weather.
Submitted by Donna Allard
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Last Day of the Season...for Mussels
Today was probably my last field day this year for sampling Western Pearlshell mussels (WPM) for signs of gravidity. Sad! The flow is low and the mussels are burrowing deeper into the substrate, making it harder to find them. At this time of year, when you pull a WPM out of the substrate, they sometimes squirt you and sometimes make noises. Maybe a bit more stressful with less flow and warmer temperatures? Or just a habit of theirs. I guess I wouldn't be quiet if I was pulled out of my habitat either .
Two new people in our office came out to help me. Rachel and Doug. They will mostly be working with the lamprey crew, formally known as the non-salmonid team, for the rest of the summer. Anyway, neither one of them had done any mussel work so they were excited and ready to go. Freshwater mussels already fascinate me so their enthusiasm made it even more fun.
There are few people who come out with me who actually will sample the mussels. You see, in order to check for gravidity we must open the mussel up about a centimeter to inspect their gills. That's where the mussel broods its eggs. So when I asked them if they wanted to sample they delightedly said Yes. I sampled the first couple of transects and showed them what to do and they pretty much took over after that.
The weather could not have been better and the company was excellent. What a great day. Thanks Rachel and Doug. I hope you enjoy your time at the CRFPO.
For more mussel blogs check out mussel mania I posted Feb 2010 and mussel mania II posted in May 2010.
Submitted by Donna Allard
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Another Potential Threat to Native Species?
Recently, I was reading an aquatic nuisance species newsletter. In it, there was a little snippet about a creature called a ‘tadpole shrimp’, Triops longicaudatus. This animal is apparently sold as a novelty pet, sort of like sea monkeys. They are crustaceans with 3 little eyes and can grow to 2 ½ inches in length. They are sometimes called the dinosaur shrimp, having changed little in the last 200 million years.
Triops are interesting creatures, indeed, and is a very successful animal. They have become adapted to living in vernal pools or temporary ponds. In the winter and spring, as these ponds fill with water, the Triops eggs hatch. Within a few weeks, they can reach 2 inches in length. Being omnivores, they eat almost anything from algae to shrimp and insects, sometimes even their own siblings. After maturing they lay eggs. Triops can live up to 90 days, but die once the water dries up in the pool. The eggs remain in the dirt of the dried up pond, until the next rain.
Triops eggs are extremely hardy. The eggs can withstand freezing temperatures as well as hot temperatures over 200 degrees F for over half a day. They can also remain in a dormant stage for up to 20 years. Because they are adapted to living in temporary pools, the eggs must completely dry out before they can hatch, therefore these animals cannot live in permanent water bodies.
Tadpole shrimp are gaining enormous popularity as pets with many websites dedicated solely to the care and raising of these animals. They are cute and novel but we all know what sometimes happens when people get tired of or outgrow their aquarium inhabitants. Do you remember all those rusty crayfish which were used for educational instruction? Once the studies were over, the instructors or students would release them into the nearest water body, not realizing the impact the non-native crayfish might have on the ecosystem. The result: the rusty crayfish not only displaces our one species of native crayfish but also dines on fish eggs. Will Triops become such a threat to animals native to our vernal pools?
What do you think of shipping these animals all over the world? What might their potential impact be on native species if they are released?
Triops are interesting creatures, indeed, and is a very successful animal. They have become adapted to living in vernal pools or temporary ponds. In the winter and spring, as these ponds fill with water, the Triops eggs hatch. Within a few weeks, they can reach 2 inches in length. Being omnivores, they eat almost anything from algae to shrimp and insects, sometimes even their own siblings. After maturing they lay eggs. Triops can live up to 90 days, but die once the water dries up in the pool. The eggs remain in the dirt of the dried up pond, until the next rain.
Triops eggs are extremely hardy. The eggs can withstand freezing temperatures as well as hot temperatures over 200 degrees F for over half a day. They can also remain in a dormant stage for up to 20 years. Because they are adapted to living in temporary pools, the eggs must completely dry out before they can hatch, therefore these animals cannot live in permanent water bodies.
Tadpole shrimp are gaining enormous popularity as pets with many websites dedicated solely to the care and raising of these animals. They are cute and novel but we all know what sometimes happens when people get tired of or outgrow their aquarium inhabitants. Do you remember all those rusty crayfish which were used for educational instruction? Once the studies were over, the instructors or students would release them into the nearest water body, not realizing the impact the non-native crayfish might have on the ecosystem. The result: the rusty crayfish not only displaces our one species of native crayfish but also dines on fish eggs. Will Triops become such a threat to animals native to our vernal pools?
What do you think of shipping these animals all over the world? What might their potential impact be on native species if they are released?
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
FWS 101 – Fish Identification
The Columbia River Fisheries Program Office (CRFPO) recently held an open house, during which, a number of local high school students visited the office. Part of the open house featured a Fish Identification session. This was an opportunity for the students to learn about, see and experience some of what the biologists at CRFPO do every day in streams of the Pacific Northwest … identify what it is they are working with!
There are many types of fish in the world that have different appearances, different behaviors, and live in different habitats. So the initial discussion focused around what makes a fish a fish. While many people seem to think they know exactly what you are talking about when you say the word fish, sometimes it can be pretty challenging for them to give a simple definition of what a fish is. The students brainstormed a bit and came up with many of the important characteristics. In general, fishes have three important traits in common: 1) they live in water, 2) they have fins and 3) they use gills to get their oxygen from the water.
When it comes to identifying fish, it is also important to know that life is full of changes. Most fish go through a cycle where they start as an embryo (or fertilized egg), hatch into a larval form, develop into a juvenile form and finally mature into an adult form. Fish from the same species can look very different from each other depending on which of the forms you are trying to identify. For example, the picture below shows a larval (left) and adult (right) fish from the same species.
(not to exact scale, relative scale only)
One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish (Dr. Suess).
The students then worked through the classification system that most biologists and scientists use, and that many of them had already learned in school! This system is a method by which biologists group and categorize organisms by biological type, arranging organisms into a hierarchical series of nested groups. The scientific approach is to take all things and group them (from largest group to smallest group) by: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species (which usually has a related common name). The following questions helped CRFPO biologists and the students determine if what they were looking at could be a fish. To possibly be a fish, they needed to answer “Yes” to the following: 1) Does it have cells with a nucleus? (Domain = Eucaryota), 2) Is it a multicellular, heterotroph? (Kingdom = Animalia), 3) Does it have a hollow, dorsal nerve chord? (Phylum = Chordata). Within this Phylum there are three Classes of fish. Chrondrichthyes are the cartilaginous fish for which there are over 900 species. Agnatha are the jawless fish for which there are over 100 species. Osteichthyes are the bony fish for which there are over 30,000 species. The goal of FWS 101 was to focus on five particular species and be able to identify two jawless fish as well as three bony fish. The jawless fish were both from the Order Petromyzontiformes and Family Petromyzontidae and their common names were Pacific lamprey & western brook lamprey. The bony fish were all from the Order Salmoniformes and Family Salmonidae and their common names were Chinook salmon, coho salmon and cutthroat trout.
Its All In The Sequence?
CRFPO biologists then went through a series of questions to help determine which of these five species a student might be looking at.
Question 1) “Is it jawless or jawed”? The pictures below show a jawless fish (left) and jawed fish (right).
To be a lamprey a fish would have to be jawless. In addition, lamprey have gill slits, no paired fins and a notochord.
Question 2) Is it a Pacific lamprey or western brook lamprey?
If it was jawless, what does the caudal area look like? Two common species of lamprey in the Pacific Northwest are Pacific lamprey and western brook lamprey. The larval forms of these species can be difficult to identify (see the picture below). Larval Pacific lamprey (left) have a relatively light caudal ridge with a dark, uniformly pigmented caudal fin. Larval western brook lamprey (right) have a relatively dark caudal ridge with a clear, or speckled caudal fin.
Question 3) Is it a trout or a salmon?
Approximately 18 species of trout can be found world wide. Five of these species are found in the Pacific Northwest. Three of the species found in the Pacific Northwest are native (cutthroat trout, bull trout, rainbow trout) while two of the species have been introduced (brown trout and brook trout). Although trout and salmon can look somewhat similar, trout have less than 13 rays in their anal fin (while salmon have more than 12).
Question 4) Is it a cutthroat trout?
A trout is generally a cutthroat when it has red/pink marks (slashes) in the throat area, speckles on its body and dorsal fin, and teeth on its tongue.
Question 5) Is it a Chinook or a coho salmon?
Five species of salmon can generally be found in the Pacific Northwest (pink, chum, sockeye, Chinook and coho). In FWS 101, if the students identified a fish as a salmon, it could have been either a Chinook or coho salmon. Chinook salmon have parr marks that are wider than the spaces between them, an adipose fin with a clear center and no spots on dorsal fin. Coho salmon have parr marks that are oval and narrower than the spaces between them, anal and dorsal fins with leading edges that are white followed by black, an orange hue (mostly on adipose, anal and caudal fins) and no spots on the dorsal fin.
Every day, from here to there, funny things are everywhere (Dr. Suess).By the end of the day the students had done a tremendous job absorbing all of this information. They skillfully used the key below and had become experts identifying these five species of fish. And you never know when they might find one of these fish in their neighborhood stream!
FWS 101 - Dichotomous Fish Key (Abbreviated to help tell the difference between five species … Pacific lamprey, western brook lamprey, Chinook salmon, coho salmon, cutthroat trout).
1a. Fish is jawless (Petromyzontidae – lamprey) .................... 2
1b. Fish is bony with jaws (Salmonidae – salmon and trout) .................... 3
2a. Caudal ridge is lighter relative to surrounding areas; caudal fin is more pigmented relative to other species of lamprey …… Pacific lamprey – Entosphenus tridentata
2b. Caudal ridge has consistent dark pigmentation; caudal fin has relatively no pigmentation (clear) with some spotting possibly present .................... Western brook lamprey – Lampetra richardsoni
3a. Anal fin with 9-12 fin rays, dorsal fin speckled (trout) .................... 4
3b. Anal fin with 13-19 fin rays, dorsal fin not speckled (salmon) .................... 5
4. Red or pink streak on underside of each mandible; presence of basibranchial teeth .................... Cutthroat trout – Oncorhynchus clarkii
5a. Parr marks are wider than interspaces; adipose fin has clear center; no spots on dorsal fin .................... Chinook salmon – Oncorhynchus tschawytscha
5b. Parr marks are oval and more narrow than interspaces; leading edges of anal and dorsal fins have white followed by black; orange hue in adipose, anal, and caudal fins; no spots on dorsal fin .................... Coho salmon – Oncorhynchus kisutch
Submitted by Tim Whitesel, Jeff Jolley, Mike Hudson, and Courtney Newlon
There are many types of fish in the world that have different appearances, different behaviors, and live in different habitats. So the initial discussion focused around what makes a fish a fish. While many people seem to think they know exactly what you are talking about when you say the word fish, sometimes it can be pretty challenging for them to give a simple definition of what a fish is. The students brainstormed a bit and came up with many of the important characteristics. In general, fishes have three important traits in common: 1) they live in water, 2) they have fins and 3) they use gills to get their oxygen from the water.
When it comes to identifying fish, it is also important to know that life is full of changes. Most fish go through a cycle where they start as an embryo (or fertilized egg), hatch into a larval form, develop into a juvenile form and finally mature into an adult form. Fish from the same species can look very different from each other depending on which of the forms you are trying to identify. For example, the picture below shows a larval (left) and adult (right) fish from the same species.
One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish (Dr. Suess).
The students then worked through the classification system that most biologists and scientists use, and that many of them had already learned in school! This system is a method by which biologists group and categorize organisms by biological type, arranging organisms into a hierarchical series of nested groups. The scientific approach is to take all things and group them (from largest group to smallest group) by: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species (which usually has a related common name). The following questions helped CRFPO biologists and the students determine if what they were looking at could be a fish. To possibly be a fish, they needed to answer “Yes” to the following: 1) Does it have cells with a nucleus? (Domain = Eucaryota), 2) Is it a multicellular, heterotroph? (Kingdom = Animalia), 3) Does it have a hollow, dorsal nerve chord? (Phylum = Chordata). Within this Phylum there are three Classes of fish. Chrondrichthyes are the cartilaginous fish for which there are over 900 species. Agnatha are the jawless fish for which there are over 100 species. Osteichthyes are the bony fish for which there are over 30,000 species. The goal of FWS 101 was to focus on five particular species and be able to identify two jawless fish as well as three bony fish. The jawless fish were both from the Order Petromyzontiformes and Family Petromyzontidae and their common names were Pacific lamprey & western brook lamprey. The bony fish were all from the Order Salmoniformes and Family Salmonidae and their common names were Chinook salmon, coho salmon and cutthroat trout.
Its All In The Sequence?
CRFPO biologists then went through a series of questions to help determine which of these five species a student might be looking at.
Question 1) “Is it jawless or jawed”? The pictures below show a jawless fish (left) and jawed fish (right).
To be a lamprey a fish would have to be jawless. In addition, lamprey have gill slits, no paired fins and a notochord.
Question 2) Is it a Pacific lamprey or western brook lamprey?
If it was jawless, what does the caudal area look like? Two common species of lamprey in the Pacific Northwest are Pacific lamprey and western brook lamprey. The larval forms of these species can be difficult to identify (see the picture below). Larval Pacific lamprey (left) have a relatively light caudal ridge with a dark, uniformly pigmented caudal fin. Larval western brook lamprey (right) have a relatively dark caudal ridge with a clear, or speckled caudal fin.
Question 3) Is it a trout or a salmon?
Approximately 18 species of trout can be found world wide. Five of these species are found in the Pacific Northwest. Three of the species found in the Pacific Northwest are native (cutthroat trout, bull trout, rainbow trout) while two of the species have been introduced (brown trout and brook trout). Although trout and salmon can look somewhat similar, trout have less than 13 rays in their anal fin (while salmon have more than 12). Question 4) Is it a cutthroat trout?
A trout is generally a cutthroat when it has red/pink marks (slashes) in the throat area, speckles on its body and dorsal fin, and teeth on its tongue.
Question 5) Is it a Chinook or a coho salmon?
Five species of salmon can generally be found in the Pacific Northwest (pink, chum, sockeye, Chinook and coho). In FWS 101, if the students identified a fish as a salmon, it could have been either a Chinook or coho salmon. Chinook salmon have parr marks that are wider than the spaces between them, an adipose fin with a clear center and no spots on dorsal fin. Coho salmon have parr marks that are oval and narrower than the spaces between them, anal and dorsal fins with leading edges that are white followed by black, an orange hue (mostly on adipose, anal and caudal fins) and no spots on the dorsal fin.Every day, from here to there, funny things are everywhere (Dr. Suess).By the end of the day the students had done a tremendous job absorbing all of this information. They skillfully used the key below and had become experts identifying these five species of fish. And you never know when they might find one of these fish in their neighborhood stream!
FWS 101 - Dichotomous Fish Key (Abbreviated to help tell the difference between five species … Pacific lamprey, western brook lamprey, Chinook salmon, coho salmon, cutthroat trout).
1a. Fish is jawless (Petromyzontidae – lamprey) .................... 2
1b. Fish is bony with jaws (Salmonidae – salmon and trout) .................... 3
2a. Caudal ridge is lighter relative to surrounding areas; caudal fin is more pigmented relative to other species of lamprey …… Pacific lamprey – Entosphenus tridentata
2b. Caudal ridge has consistent dark pigmentation; caudal fin has relatively no pigmentation (clear) with some spotting possibly present .................... Western brook lamprey – Lampetra richardsoni
3a. Anal fin with 9-12 fin rays, dorsal fin speckled (trout) .................... 4
3b. Anal fin with 13-19 fin rays, dorsal fin not speckled (salmon) .................... 5
4. Red or pink streak on underside of each mandible; presence of basibranchial teeth .................... Cutthroat trout – Oncorhynchus clarkii
5a. Parr marks are wider than interspaces; adipose fin has clear center; no spots on dorsal fin .................... Chinook salmon – Oncorhynchus tschawytscha
5b. Parr marks are oval and more narrow than interspaces; leading edges of anal and dorsal fins have white followed by black; orange hue in adipose, anal, and caudal fins; no spots on dorsal fin .................... Coho salmon – Oncorhynchus kisutch
Submitted by Tim Whitesel, Jeff Jolley, Mike Hudson, and Courtney Newlon
Thursday, June 30, 2011
We Share One Place - Oregon's Endangered Species
A few years back, I had a request from a teacher for materials about endangered species. I searched my cabinets for FWS materials and could only come up with outdated material from over 20 years ago. Even though there is a wealth of information on the internet, there is no comprehensive piece focused on the species in our own backyard. At the time, I remembered having seen a draft booklet developed by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Office, geared to students in grades 4 through 7. I called up Nancy, one of the developers and we agreed that we should finalize the draft book, started nine years earlier. We decided to try to find the original files, update the information, and get it into distribution.
During our initial consultations, I was visiting with Nancy in her office and she pulled out a prototype of the book. Apparently only a handful of copies were even printed before the project was shelved, literally. She held the only copy left so gently and with such guard, I was afraid to even touch it, much less hold it. I laugh when I think back on that moment.
Fast forward more than 10 months later and the book is finalized with an initial printing of 300 copies. We felt that to maximize the effectiveness of this new resource it was important to do a targeted distribution plan. The plan is to provide 10 classrooms with 30 booklets (1 per student) and to make ourselves available as consultants to the teachers. This would include assisting with the outdoor activity and having a biologist speak to the students (should the teacher request it).
So far the book has been distributed to six schools in the Portland area. As the word gets out, I'm sure it will gain popularity as the new school year begins in September. if you are an educator interested in this invaluable resource, please contact us.
Submitted by Donna Allard
Monday, June 20, 2011
Outreach at Cape Horn Skye Elementary
Six Columbia River Fisheries Program Office employees set out for a morning of outreach at Cape Horn Skye School. Our intent was to entertain and educate 55 curious 1st graders. Little did we know how fun it would be! It was the first time our outreach program involved such a young group. We began our event with a very short introduction, then jumped right into a video that introduced bats to children. They were intrigued and made some funny comments throughout the video.
Next on the agenda was a Creatures of the Night Presentation. This also held their attention, but the comments kept coming. Following the video we split the class into two parts, Group A and Group B. Group A were sent to another room to dissect owl pellets. An overhead projection of possible bones to be found was portrayed for the students to compare their findings. Ok, this time we had to chuckle under our breath at comments made regarding the owl pellets. We had to reassure the students that the pellets had been sterilized. Not many realize that an owl regurgitate the pellets. Most believe it comes out the other end.
Group B were provided the opportunity to make fish prints. We supplied them with two real steelhead and a multitude of rubber fish, a rubber starfish, and a rubber turtle to make prints with. The students were great! They had a blast painting and were thrilled with their prints.
Many thanks to Donna Allard, our Outreach Fishery Biologist, that lead the event and thanks to Cape Horn Skye School for the opportunity to provide an outreach event for the first grade classes.
Submitted by Andrea Houts
Next on the agenda was a Creatures of the Night Presentation. This also held their attention, but the comments kept coming. Following the video we split the class into two parts, Group A and Group B. Group A were sent to another room to dissect owl pellets. An overhead projection of possible bones to be found was portrayed for the students to compare their findings. Ok, this time we had to chuckle under our breath at comments made regarding the owl pellets. We had to reassure the students that the pellets had been sterilized. Not many realize that an owl regurgitate the pellets. Most believe it comes out the other end.
Group B were provided the opportunity to make fish prints. We supplied them with two real steelhead and a multitude of rubber fish, a rubber starfish, and a rubber turtle to make prints with. The students were great! They had a blast painting and were thrilled with their prints.
Many thanks to Donna Allard, our Outreach Fishery Biologist, that lead the event and thanks to Cape Horn Skye School for the opportunity to provide an outreach event for the first grade classes.
Submitted by Andrea Houts
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