July 16, 2015

Shelley Dawicki, Northeast Fisheries Science Center. E-mail: [email protected] For decades, volunteers have played an important role in National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries at-sea research operations, working side by side with federal researchers during a variety of surveys throughout the year. These include spring and fall bottom trawl surveys; summer surf clam Spisula solidissima, ocean quahog Arctica islandica, and sea scallop Placopecten magellanicus dredge surveys; and fall Atlantic Herring Clupea harengus acoustic surveys. Most of the volunteers have worked with the Ecosystems Surveys Branch, based at the Woods Hole Laboratory of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), which conducts the majority of the NEFSC’s fishery assessment cruises each year. The NEFSC bottom trawl surveys have been conducted since the mid-1960s and represent one of the world’s longest time series of standardized fishery-independent abundance indices for important fishery species. The scallop and clam surveys began in the late 1970s, and the fisheries acoustic surveys began in 1998. “As far as I can determine, volunteers have participated on our surveys since the 1960s,” said Rob Johnston, who is chief of ecosystem survey operations at the NEFSC. “The volunteers are usually students, scientists, or educators with a specific interest in going to sea for a few weeks. It is not a cruise in the way the public thinks of a cruise, as a leisurely recreational activity or vacation. It is often hard, physically demanding work, requiring long hours on watch. The scientists and the volunteers work closely together.” Surveys are conducted to monitor recruitment, biomass and abundance, geographic distribution, and changes in the ecosystem. They also collect biological data used to track maturity stages and feeding habits as well as environmental data useful in a variety of research. Much of this information, added to landings and other data supplied directly by fishermen, is used for fishery stock assessments and helps guide management decisions. “It is important work, critical to our mission to understand, conserve, and utilize in a sustainable way the living marine resources on the Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf,” Johnston said. Volunteers are members of the scientific party and work the same shifts as the scientists. That means a 12-hour stretch on the spring and fall bottom trawl surveys aboard the 209-foot NOAA ship Henry B. Bigelow. The ship conducts multispecies finfish surveys throughout the U.S. Northeast Continental Shelf in four legs: Cape Hatteras/Mid-Atlantic, Southern New England, Georges Bank, and the Gulf of Maine. Each of the legs lasts two to three weeks. The spring 2015 survey began in early March and ran into early May. The fall 2015 bottom trawl survey will take place from early September through mid-November. Given that there are only 15 berths for the science party on the Bigelow and 24-hour operations, every bunk needs to be filled with a qualified person. Working out the logistics is the job of Katherine Sowers, Ecosystems Surveys Branch cruise staffing coordinator since 2006. “Volunteers are full-fledged members of the scientific party, and we place a great value on their participation to help us conduct the surveys and collect data,” said Sowers. “The demands of the schedule and the workload require that every member of the party be able to perform the duties required of a scientist during that leg of the voyage. Our biggest challenge is developing a well-balanced roster for each of the survey legs. Volunteers are important in that regard.” Volunteers learn about the opportunities through the NEFSC website (nefsc.noaa.gov/femad/ecosurvey/mainpage), by word of mouth, or through e-mail alerts. Once they sign up, complete a questionnaire, and meet medical requirements, volunteers are on Sowers’ e-mail list will be notified about upcoming surveys. Staffing calls for the next season’s survey are issued three times a year: the end of January for the spring, the end of March for the summer, and the end of July for the fall surveys. Sowers used to talk with many of the volunteers by phone, sometimes in person, but these days most of the communication is done by e-mail. “I get new candidates all the time, from all over the country and from all ages and backgrounds,” Sowers said. “Most of them have interest in or experience going to sea, are students who want or need the experience for degree requirements, or are educators who want to learn and then share the experience with others when they return, such as participants in the NOAA Teacher at Sea program. This spring, for example, we had volunteers on every leg from such places as the U.S. Coast Guard, Cornell University, and the University of Rhode Island.” Depending on the type of cruise, volunteers handle fish, scallops, and other species caught in nets or a dredge; sort the catch; sample specimens; and record data. In the process, they learn about various fish and shellfish species, how surveys are conducted, and the types of information collected and where it goes. Once processed, data are used in stock assessments, as guidance for resource managers, and for a wide range of research programs. The operations of the research vessel, how the catch is collected, and preparations for handling the catch aboard ship are all part of the learning experience. The at-sea volunteer opportunity can help students decide on career paths and is a positive addition to resumes. Joseph Kunkel and Carol Glor represent the diversity of volunteers. Kunkel, a biologist and professor at the University of New England, has been a volunteer scientist since 1998 during spring and fall bottom trawl surveys aboard the NEFSC’s fisheries survey vessels Albatross IV, Delaware II, and now the Henry B. Bigelow. Glor is a middle school teacher from New York who teaches home and career skills and who was a 2014 NOAA Teacher at Sea. She joined the scallop survey aboard the research vessel Hugh R. Sharp in July 2014 as a first-time volunteer. The type and timing of the surveys makes a difference. There are more volunteer opportunities for students and teachers on the summer clam and scallop surveys, which tend to

Christopher Moore, E-mail: [email protected] There’s not much finesse involved. Leave your dry flies at home, and try not to think in terms like pocket water or drift. When you’re hunting snakeheads in a shallow, urbanized stream, it helps to cover a lot of ground quickly. This means walking up and down the streambank looking for that bullet-shaped body. You can’t miss it in water that’s only a couple feet deep. The Northern Snakehead Channa argus was discovered in a pond in eastern Maryland back in 2002. Since then, it has spread to most of our major rivers—even showing up in the Chesapeake Bay after periods of heavy rain have altered the salinity in its favor. The lower Potomac River has an especially robust population, and in the summer, they are on the move. Adults will look for shallow, grassy margins to shelter their newly hatched fry. Snakeheads are great parents—no doubt one reason for their phenomenal expansion—but this also makes them easy targets. Just look for your loudest, ugliest, most obnoxious looking bass fly and have at it! It helps to focus on undercut banks or areas with overhanging vegetation or woody debris. I spotted one patrolling the slack water under a bridge spanning the Northeast Branch of the Anacostia River. A popular jogging trail runs adjacent to the Northeast Branch, and the “snake monster” fish always brings a crowd. There is no catch and release permitted, but before dispatching it, I took the opportunity to demonstrate how this species cannot crawl over land, as had been mistakenly reported in the media. In fact, despite their fearsome appearance, the Northern Snakehead is reputed to be a tasty fish (gasp!), second only to Walleye Sander vitreus or Yellow Perch Perca flavescens for its mild flavor. I had reservations about eating this one, however, because of where it was caught; the Anacostia, unfortunately, is one of our nation’s most polluted rivers. Speaking of eating, in the initial frenzy following the discovery of the Northern Snakehead in Maryland, people expressed concern for their pets and young children. To date, no cats or kindergartners have turned up while analyzing stomach contents; instead, Banded Killifish Fundulus diaphanus and Bluegill Lepomis macrochirus are two of the species most often reported. One angler I encountered showed me his cooler with five or six snakeheads, all between two- and three-feet-long, caught with small sunfish he’d collected earlier that day. But even if a rogue fish developed a craving for human flesh, it would have a hard time leaving the water. C. argus is not flattened ventrally, and this makes “crawling” out of the question. Confusion on this point is understandable, however. Of the 29 species of snakehead found throughout Asia and tropical Africa, several are in fact capable of overland migration. Presumably this sort of adaptive behavior is advantageous in periods of drought or in areas with ephemeral stream channels. That being said, flood conditions are thought to contribute to the spread of C. argus in local waters. You won’t find it lurking in the shrubbery waiting to ambush the neighbor’s house cat, but you might find it in a drainage ditch or in a flooded field after periods of heavy rain. Our own newly resident species, the Northern Snakehead, also benefits in other ways from its interesting physiology. Like gar, all snakeheads are obligate air breathers. This makes them tolerant of warm, shallow, hypoxic water—summertime conditions— in other words, many of our urbanized stream systems. The Channidae are by and large a tropical or subtropical family of fishes. Lucky for us, the Northern Snakehead is the one species within the genus/family that can survive over-wintering in a temperate climate. Other species (e.g., C. micropeltes, the Giant Snakehead) have also been collected in area waters and throughout the northeastern United States but are thought to be incapable of establishing viable populations. It is through human agency, of course, that these fish have been found so far from their native range. Aquarium releases pose a problem as do fish imported or captive bred for use in the live-food fish trade. Nevertheless, in a silver lining of sorts, the Northern Snakehead has reawakened an interest in the health of the Anacostia River and its watershed. Snakehead stories in the news are almost invariably packaged as “yet one more problem” for the river and its inhabitants. But it’s hard to think of a fish with more sex appeal, and this has people returning to the river. Historically, the Anacostia and its tributaries boasted huge runs of shad and herring. My ramblings throughout the watershed can attest to this; in exposed areas of the stream channel, I’ve found Native American net weights as well as nineteenth century lumps of cast iron used for the same purpose. Since then, the usual march of progress has turned what was once a river with an active floodplain into something resembling, in places, an enormous ditch. But it’s a ditch with an exotic fish, and I’m always pleasantly surprised to find folks fishing. Growing up in North Carolina, I never really had the chance to tangle with too many esocids, other than Chain Pickerel Esox niger. Down south, it can seem like the Largemouth Bass Micropterus salmoides is the only gospel in town. Both fish will hit hard, but in my experience it’s over after a couple of short runs. The Northern Snakehead is different. If I had to compare it to some other species, I’d have to go with gar. A big Longnose Gar Lepisosteus osseus will fight you up and down the water column and then trash the boat for kicks. Common Carp Cyprinus carpio come to mind as well. This statement is tasteless (pun intended) and offensive—please no hate mail—but give a big carp room to run, and it’s on! Ask none other than the great Lefty Kreh himself. In his autobiography My Life Was This Big, Kreh calls the carp “one of the strongest and most challenging freshwater fish out there.” Big carp and snakeheads