It is fall and Nebraska fisheries biologists are in the midst of their annual fish sampling activities on lakes, reservoirs, pits and ponds across the state. It is a busy time of year. The sampling of fish in our public waters is necessary to gauge the health of the fish populations in those waters and evaluate fisheries management activities like habitat enhancement, harvest regulations and stocking programs. The data collected from our fish communities is invaluable to pointy-headed fisheries biologists.
Fish population sampling is done on every body of public water, but not every waterbody is sampled every year. Yes, some of the state’s largest and most important fisheries are sampled on an annual basis; fish populations in other waters may be sampled only once every three to five year.
A few years back I linked to a NEBRASKAland story written by Jeff Kurrus that explained some of the science behind fish population sampling. Once that issue of NEBRASKAland went off-line, my links to that story were no longer any good. Just recently I got a .pdf of the same story, so I want to include it in my blog again here. Take a few minutes to read through this and you will have a good idea of what our fisheries biologists are up to right now:
If you want to see the .pdf, which may be a little easier to read, here it is, Survey Says_march 2011 Nebland
In a few weeks I will start bugging the field biologists for summaries of their sampling data for the 2018 Fishing Forecast. That data is invaluable to anglers too!
No, it is not rocket science, but it is science, fisheries science!
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