Re: NANFA-- Collecting

Bruce Stallsmith (fundulus_at_hotmail.com)
Wed, 22 Dec 1999 18:14:19 EST

I'm one of those who mentioned electrofishing. Dave Neely knows the
technology much better than I do (I've gone out once with him to do it) but
the principle is that you generate a current of a certain frequency and stun
fish. Longer wavelengths work better on larger fish, shorter wavelengths
with smaller fish. The stunned fish floats to the surface and you have
several seconds to grab it before it recovers enough to swim off.

I would strongly urge you to not use a cattle prod; I'm not sure exactly
what would happen but it wouldn't be pretty. Electrofishing gear is
specifically designed to safely generate a very local current in the water,
with a power source equivalent to (or even as) a motorcycle battery. Various
field research companies sell them, for (if I remember correctly) several
hundred dollars. They're designed to be mounted in a frame back pack. They
work great; we used it out of a canoe in a cypress swamp, an environment
nearly impossible to sample any other way. I kept 4 Fundulus dispar that
were shocked, and they're doing well in an aquarium now.

--Bruce Stallsmith
Huntsville, AL

>Hello,
>I have read that some of you use a shock stick or something like that to
>collect fish , How dose that work? dose it stun the fish or dose it drive
>them tords your net? and where do you find equipment like this ? I was
>thinking about using a cattle prod will that work?
>
>Later,
>George

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