Conservation: Electrofishing at Epping Way Lake
On Tuesday, November 13th, two Wolf River Conservancy staff members hopped on an electrofishing boat with Jeffrey and Joe from the University of Tennessee Extension Service at Epping Way Lake near the Wolf River Greenway. Equipped with large nets, the team began working transects across the lake.
Electrofishing is a common fisheries sampling technique used to assess fish populations, stunning fish temporarily to collect information on them, then returning them unharmed to the water. Two electrodes on the front of the boat are lowered into the water to emit a slight, non-lethal electric current which stuns the fish, allowing them to be scooped out of the water with handheld nets. The fish are then put into a bucket and taken back to land after each transect, where each fish is identified, weighed and measured. This information is later used to estimate the type, number, average size, and age structure of the fish population, providing a picture of the health of the lake and whether the population dynamics indicate a need for management of some kind. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the fish of Epping Way have been systematically surveyed.
What did we find? The electrofishing sampling so far appears to indicate a healthy largemouth bass population with a range of ages and sizes, which means there are enough smaller bluegills and other fish to support them. Some large bluegills were captured in this effort, and many small bluegill fry have been observed among the aquatic plants lining the banks. There were a few gars in the sample, interesting predators which have their place in a healthy lake though they are not sought by fishermen, and lots of bottom-feeding buffalo fish, some perhaps stranded in the lake during one of the past large flood events. We did not find invasive carp in this survey, which is good news.
We look forward to working with the UT Extension Service on strategies going forward to maintain the health of Epping Way Lake for the benefit of our fishing community and those who frequent the Wolf River Greenway, the fish population, and the numerous other species – the plants, invertebrates, frogs, turtles, birds and mammals – which depend on the lake, too.
On Nov 13, a team conducted electrofishing at Epping Way Lake, finding a healthy bass population, bluegills, and no invasive carp—promising for local ecology.
