Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
Pool 4, Upper Mississippi River 2002 Fish Collection Summary
This report is a bullet summary of the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program's fish collection efforts conducted by the Lake City Field Station on Pool 4, Upper Mississippi River during 2002. Information on changes in fish catch over all years can be obtained from the Graphical Fish Database Browser.
- 236 fish collections were conducted using six gear types (Table
2.1).
- Gear allocations among strata remained consistent for all three sampling
periods except for two fewer day electrofishing runs during period 2
and four fewer trawl runs during periods 2 and 3.
- Water levels were below the long-term mean from mid-January to early
April (Figure 1.1).
From April to May, water levels fluctuated above and below the long-term
mean. Sampling started on June 17 when water levels were receding and
stayed below the long-term mean until late June. Water levels rose significantly
above the long-term mean for periods 2 and 3. During periods 2
and 3, a total of two elecrofishing runs and eight trawls were not
completed because of high water conditions in the main channel border
and tailwater areas of Pool 4.
- Of the 236 fish collections, 202 were from randomly selected sites,
and 34 were from fixed sites. The reduction in fish collections and
gear types from the previous year were because of the elimination of
sampling allocations in seining, tandem fyke netting, tandem mini fyke
netting, and night electrofishing.
- Side channel borders, backwaters, and main channel borders received
the most sampling effort (Table 2.1).
- 36,945 fish, representing 58 species and 2 hybrids, were collected
(Table 3.1).
- Historical fish distribution records for the Upper Mississippi River
(Pitlo et al. 1995) document 99 fish species from Pool 4. To date the
Lake City Field Station has collected a total of 89 species and 5 hybrids.
- During the 2002 fish sampling season the three species with the highest
total catch were as follows: 29,147 emerald shiners, 1,483 gizzard shad and 1,296 bluegill.
- One paddlefish, a Minnesota threatened
species, was collected. Five black buffalo
and one blue sucker, Minnesota special
concern species, were also collected. (Table 3.1).
- Mean catch-per-unit-effort and standard error for fish collected
by gears using stratified random (Tables
4.1-11.1) and fixed-site sampling (Tables
14.1-21.1) for each stratum are shown.
- Length distributions for selected species of fish are shown in Figures 2.1
to 19.1.
Content manager: Jennie
Sauer
Page Last Modified: April 17, 2018