{"id":70763,"date":"2018-05-14T10:37:57","date_gmt":"2018-05-14T15:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=70763"},"modified":"2018-06-12T14:09:34","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T19:09:34","slug":"the-hunt-for-river-herring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-hunt-for-river-herring\/","title":{"rendered":"The hunt for the return of the river herring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Medill News Service journalist Mollie McNeel is writing a series of stories from\u00a0 embedded reporting with field researchers for the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Maryland. \u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Mollie McNeel<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

May 9, Potapsco River, Maryland. – I am out here standing waist deep in the middle of a roaring river, straddling a net while the tail end trails behind me catching sediments that will be used to detect river herring.<\/p>\n

Kim Richie, the SERC research technician I am assisting today, yells from the banks, \u201cYou have five minutes of standing there so get comfortable!\u201d I don\u2019t mention that the cold water is slowly finding its way through my full-body \u201cwaterproof\u201d waders. Instead I just stand there waiting for the sediments to collect and my right boot to fill with river water.
\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Mollie McNeel shows off her waders while out in the field. Photo: Mollie McNeel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today we are traveling to 10 different sites along the Potapsco River taking samples that will determine whether river herring, fish that spend the majority of their life at sea but return to freshwater to spawn, are present in each section of the river. To do this, we conduct three different tests: sediment collection, eDNA, and sight.<\/p>\n

Sediment collection requires someone (me) to go stand in the middle of the river while a long triangular net flows behind collecting plant leaves or branches, eggs and more – sediments. Back at the SERC lab, research assistants will search through each of the samples under a microscope, carefully looking for hints that fish are in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know what you\u2019re going to catch in these nets,\u201d explained Richie. \u201cSometimes we catch little fish but, by the time we realize it, it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

eDNA, or environmental DNA, is a fascinating technique that requires little work in the field. We simply fill up a bottle of water at each site. The water is later tested in the lab looking for DNA indicators of river herring.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a process that is able to detect any gametes, urine, scales, really anything that genetically shows they are somewhere in the water,\u201d explained Richie.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
River Herring in the Potapsco River. Photo: SERC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, we just look to see if we could spot any fish. Unfortunately, we never spotted any fish but that wasn\u2019t exactly a surprise to Richie. \u201cRiver herring don\u2019t come out during the day,\u201d she said. \u201cSince the Potapsco is so clear and shallow, it makes them easy targets for prey, so they hide out in deep and dark holes until nighttime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Bloede Dam is currently being removed and scientists hope herring will be able to migrate further into the river than ever before. Photo: Mollie McNeel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The river is cut by a dam that is blocking off a majority of the stream and limiting populations of two different kinds of river herring\u2014Alewives and Blueback. Later this summer, the dam will be completely removed allowing the fish to swim further up the river to spawn. We looked at four sites above the dam and six below so that after the dam is removed researchers can tell that they have in fact, migrated farther upstream than ever before.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Citizen scientist collects sediments in the Potapsco River. (Photo: Mollie McNeel)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Medill News Service journalist Mollie McNeel is writing a series of stories from\u00a0 embedded reporting with field researchers for the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Maryland. \u00a0 By Mollie McNeel Medill Reports May 9, Potapsco River, Maryland. – I am out here standing waist deep in the middle of a roaring river, straddling a net […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":409,"featured_media":70769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,29,30,4227],"tags":[192],"class_list":["post-70763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-interest","category-health-and-science","category-public-affairs","category-spring-2018","tag-promo"],"yoast_head":"\nThe hunt for the return of the river herring - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-hunt-for-river-herring\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The hunt for the return of the river herring - 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