Well, the crew finished up our week in Southern Illinois. We surveyed about 70 ramps, including Crab Orchard Resevoir, Little Grassy, Devil's Kitchen, Lake of Egypt, Mermit Late, Carlyle and Rend Reservoirs. (among others)
Overall Southern IL is very pretty, but dry and hot. The lakes are either very clear, pretty and plant-rich flooded cypress swamps or they are murky, shallow reservoirs with little plants life. Although the lakes may be murky and not much fun to dive, they are mostly located in beautiful parks, with lots of trees and benches and picnic tables. This part of the country means business when they create areas for recreation.
Photos:
Above Left: Crew members Alex R. (diver) and Mike M. (kayaker), Crab Orchard Lake
Above Right: My team, Erick E. (diver) and myself, Angela (kayaker), Devil's Kitchen
June 27th, Sunday: While my boss and I were surveying Horseshoe Lake in the southwest regions of the Shawnee National Forest, we came across some fishermen 'fishing' archery style. (Below right) It's actually pretty amazing to see people able to spot a fish, and shoot it right in the middle of the head with a crossbow and arrow from a bridge 20 feet up. At the dam of horseshoe lake, one guy managed to shoot a huge 20 lbs. bighead carp. (Left) Erick got in the photo with the unfortunate fish to provide a sense of scale for the scientists back home.
The Lodge Lab of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN is currently in the middle of elaborate water testing and analyzing on a project involving the invasive Asian carp. 'Asian carp' is an umbrella term for three specific types of carp ; bighead, silver, and grass. Silver carp are particularly troublesome to aquatic recreationalist because when they are disturbed by a passing boat or other electromechanical sound, they can propel themselves up, out of the water. at a maximim of 20 feet, in no particular direction. Imagine starting your boat in the middle of the lake so you can take your friend around on the water ski or innertube, and a 20 lb fish (much like the one to the right with the arrow in the head) comes flying out of the water and smacks you in the head, or worse! gets it's gross fishie slime all over.
Well right now these fish, found in most the tributaries of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers are trying to infiltrate the Great Lakes. Do you know how much space, food and recreation goes on in the Great Lakes?! Need I say more. It would be bad news for everyone.
The Lodge Lab at ND is using a process called eDNA (environmental DNA) where they can gather and filter water from any lake or tributary and run it through electrophoresis and compare it to DNA positives of Asian Carp. Since fish can excrete DNA through they scales, urine and feces, a presence of fish DNA in a particular water sample can indicate the presence of that fish in that waterway.
It's amazing what science can tell us...but for now, I am happy preforming science the old fashioned way...swimming and looking for the presence or absence of plants!!!! Go Team!!
Here is an article about the Asian Carp
And here is more info about Lodge Lab and the eDNA method
Fish DNA from just a water sample ?! That's amazing !!
ReplyDeleteAngela, It's great to see photos of you kayaking with your team. I look forward to seeing you at the end of this month. Suzanna Mom
ReplyDeleteWe experienced the 'jumping' silver carp on the Illinois River when we went boating! They flew up in the air behind our boat...very weird to see. Some almost landing in the boat! We could hear them smacking on the hull!!!!
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