Re: NANFA-- Collecting Trip

Bruce Stallsmith (fundulus_at_hotmail.com)
Mon, 17 Jul 2000 22:06:34 EDT

Sounds good, Brian, I think you guys hit almost everything available. I have
two questions of you & Rick--the first, is Crescent Beach in Mattapoisett
adjacent to the Aucoot salt marsh in Marion, the really big marsh with
Converse Point on its east side? If you can get access to this marsh it's
one of the best on the mainland; of course, it's Marion and they're not
thrilled at visitors parking there...

My second question (observation, really) is that when you guys go back to
southern RI you should try to hit a salt marsh and look for my faves,
spotfin killifish (Fundulus luciae). There aren't any collecting records for
spotfins for most of RI even though they should be there. There's only my
collection of them in Barrington, RI, way on the other side of the state.
Rick knows what to look for, be prepared to net lots of mud! And for that
matter, they haven't been reported from Connecticut either.

--Bruce Stallsmith
Huntsville, AL "southern culture on the skids"

>Not wanting to waste the daylight and not having any luck at the bogs we
>decided to head to site #2: Cresant Beach, Mattapoisett, MA. This is an
>ocean site and as we all know...there are plenty of fish in the sea. Some
>dip netting through the rock weed (Fucus sp.), a little snorkling with a
>hand net, and a couple of dags of the seine all yeilded the ubiquidous
>inland silersides (Menidia berylina) and a couple juvenile northern
>kingfish (Menticirrhus saxatilis). We moved to the east end of the beach
>near a large salt marsh. Dipping and seineing produced cunners
>(Tautogolabrus adspersus), tautog (Tautoga onitis), northern pipefish
>(Sygnathus fuscus), striped killifish (Fundulus majalis) and mummichogs
>(Fundulus heteroclitus). Try not finding mummis near a salt marsh.
>
>We had a hell of a day! This week we're planning two trips...some
>frshwater collecting in the Wood River and surrounding ponds in southern
>Rhode Island and some more marine collecting in Newport and Portsmouth RI.
>
>Brian Bastarache
>Bristol County Natural History Center/ Bristol Co. Agricultural School
>bast_at_ici.net

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