In this issue:
Fish Milking
by Rob Kennedy, Student, T.C. Williams High School
Alexandria, VA
Earlier this year my ecology teacher at T.C. Williams High
School explained to us that we would be required to do a community service
project relating to ecology. My first reaction was that of any graduating
senior: "Please! No more work!" But then Ranger Moline came
into our classroom and explained all the different projects available
to us. At this point, I started to get excited. She listed all these cool
projects, from tree plantings to marsh cleanups, but one really stood
out in my mind--fish milking.
On April 30, I went out on a boat in the middle of the Potomac with five
volunteers (including Ranger Moline!), a scientist from the Interstate
Commission on the Potomac, and a fisherman who drove us in his boat. After
a couple hours of pulling fish from our nets and identifying them, we
headed back to shore.
Here was the amazing part of the project. We milked the shad of their eggs and sperm, documented the fishs' measurements, and took several of their heads for testing. Upon arriving at the dock, we were met by a van from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Norfolk, which took the now fertilized eggs to the hatchery.
It was really neat helping in repopulating a fish so necessary to our river ecosystem. At one point, the shad population in the Potomac was dangerously low, but the success of this project, which has been operating since the mid-90s, has now brought the population size back to a sound level.
