An extensive resource for New York freshwater anglers is the I FISH NY Guide to Freshwater Fishing in New York State. The map-brochure from New York's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) contains information on more than 320 lakes and ponds and 110 rivers in the state.
Anglers can obtain a map by e-mailing their name and address to fwfish@gw.dec.state.ny.us (include NY FISHING MAP in the subject line).
An interactive version of the guide can also be found on the DEC website.
source: New York Department of Environmental Conservation
Friday, March 29, 2013
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Chicago River Asian Carp
The Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee (ACRCC) recently announced that intensive monitoring actions would be implemented in the North Shore Channel of the Chicago River after three consecutive rounds of Environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling yielded positive results for Asian carp DNA in the North Shore Channel.
Three separate eDNA samples sets were taken at the North Shore Channel between June 11th and September 11th, revealing 17 positives for silver carp DNA out of 171 samples.
At present, eDNA evidence cannot verify whether live Asian carp are present, whether the DNA may have come from a dead fish, or whether water containing Asian carp DNA may have been transported from other sources, such as bilge water.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is leading an Asian Carp eDNA Calibration Study (ECALS) with the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reduce the uncertainty surrounding eDNA results and investigate alternative sources and pathways for eDNA detections beyond a live fish.
Full eDNA sampling details can be found at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers website:
(http://www.lrc.usace.army.mil/Missions/CivilWorksProjects/ANSPortal/eDNA.aspx)
For more Asian carp information, visit: www.asiancarp.us
source: U.S. Geological Survey
Three separate eDNA samples sets were taken at the North Shore Channel between June 11th and September 11th, revealing 17 positives for silver carp DNA out of 171 samples.
At present, eDNA evidence cannot verify whether live Asian carp are present, whether the DNA may have come from a dead fish, or whether water containing Asian carp DNA may have been transported from other sources, such as bilge water.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is leading an Asian Carp eDNA Calibration Study (ECALS) with the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reduce the uncertainty surrounding eDNA results and investigate alternative sources and pathways for eDNA detections beyond a live fish.
Full eDNA sampling details can be found at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers website:
(http://www.lrc.usace.army.mil/Missions/CivilWorksProjects/ANSPortal/eDNA.aspx)
For more Asian carp information, visit: www.asiancarp.us
source: U.S. Geological Survey
Friday, November 2, 2012
Bluegill Sunfish Facts
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| Male Bluegill Sunfish |
Bluegill Sunfish Facts:
- scientific name: Lepomis macrochirus
- bluegill are members of the sunfish family which includes black bass, crappie, and others.
- common names include bluegill, sunfish, bream, brim, sunny, sun perch
- recognized as the state fish of Illinois
- under optimum conditions, bluegill sunfish can grow to 9 inches in one year
- average lifespan is four to six years
- adults have a dark opercular (or ear) fin, with a dark margin
- bluegill can hybridize with other sunfish including green sunfish, orangespotted sunfish, redear sunfish, longear sunfish, and pumpkinseeds
- bluegills are native to eastern and central North America
- the species has been introduced throughout North America, Europe and South Africa
- the species is usually found in slow moving or still water with aquatic vegetation
Related Information
What do Sunfish Eat?
Saturday, October 27, 2012
New Jersey Fall-Winter Trout Stocking
The NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife recently published a reminder to anglers that all of the trout New Jersey stocks during fall and winter measure 14 inches to 24 inches and weigh one and a half pounds to eight pounds.
More and more anglers are enjoying the larger fish stocked since a change in 2006 to stocking only larger trout. However, 67% of New Jersey trout anglers were not aware of this major stocking change when surveyed in 2010.
A growing number of anglers have begun enjoying big fish, cool water, great weather, and spectacular scenery that occur during New Jersey's fall trout fishing season. Trout fishing action extends through the winter months until spring stocking begins again in April.
From October 9 through November 21, more than 26,000 lunker trout will be stocked in 16 streams and 40 ponds and lakes throughout the state.
For more information on the fall and winter stocking program, visit www.njfishandwildlife.com/trtinfo.htm or call the Trout Hotline at 609-633-6765.
source: NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife
More and more anglers are enjoying the larger fish stocked since a change in 2006 to stocking only larger trout. However, 67% of New Jersey trout anglers were not aware of this major stocking change when surveyed in 2010.
A growing number of anglers have begun enjoying big fish, cool water, great weather, and spectacular scenery that occur during New Jersey's fall trout fishing season. Trout fishing action extends through the winter months until spring stocking begins again in April.
From October 9 through November 21, more than 26,000 lunker trout will be stocked in 16 streams and 40 ponds and lakes throughout the state.
For more information on the fall and winter stocking program, visit www.njfishandwildlife.com/trtinfo.htm or call the Trout Hotline at 609-633-6765.
source: NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Raritan River Dam Removal Projects
The removal of old dams from the Raritan River in New Jersey will allow migrating fish to fully access the middle and upper portions of the river for the first time in more than a century.
The dam removal project is being done and financed by El Paso Corp. (now Kinder Morgan, Inc.), under the terms of a landmark agreement secured last year by the DEP as compensation to the public for harm to natural resources caused by past pollution facilities operated by or affiliated with El Paso.
This second Raritan River dam to be removed is known as the Roberts Street Dam and was previously known as the Dead River Dam. It straddles Bridgewater and Hillsborough townships. Its removal will open up a large segment of the Raritan River for fish spawning.
The elimination of the Roberts Street Dam will further increase water flow and habitat improvements realized from removal of the Calco Dam in Bridgewater last summer, which was the first phase of this three-step process.
The removal of all three targeted dams will open up 10 miles of migratory fish habitat along a stretch of the Raritan that twists through a highly diverse residential, commercial and agricultural portion of Somerset County that includes Bridgewater, Hillsborough, Bound Brook, Somerville and Manville.
It also will open up about 17 miles of tributaries, including portions of the Millstone River, to spawning. None of the dams were built for flood control.
The targeted dams include:
The Robert Street Dam, a 6 ½-foot-high sheet piling and concrete dam located at river mile 27.9. It was constructed prior to 1930 for purposes that are not known today. This dam failed and was reconstructed in 1963.
Calco Dam, located at river mile 20.9 and built by the Calco Chemical Co. in 1938 to disperse chemicals from its facility. The dam was essentially a large concrete pipe spanning the river that most recently carried and dispersed wastewater into the river for the Somerset Raritan Valley Sewerage Authority. The authority constructed a new outfall for that purpose. Calco Dam was demolished in 2011.
The Nevius Street Dam, located at river mile 27. The rock and mortar dam was built in 1901 for aesthetic purposes and later retrofitted to provide water to ponds on the Duke Estate. The DEP and El Paso are working on a future plan to ensure the river continues to feed water to these ponds after the dam is removed. Removal is anticipated in 2013.
Fish that will benefit from the removal of the dams are American shad, American eel, herring, and striped bass, which once migrated in prodigious numbers through the gravelly shallows of the Upper Raritan.
The voluntary settlement with El Paso resolved Natural Resource Damage claims made by the DEP against the Houston-based company that stemmed from contamination at EPEC Polymers Inc. in Flemington, Hunterdon County; Nuodex Inc. in Woodbridge, Middlesex County; EPEC Polymers Inc. in Burlington City, Burlington County; and the Eagle Point Refinery in West Deptford, Gloucester County. Investigations and/or cleanups are under way at those sites.
The DEP uses funds secured from Natural Resource Damage settlements toward ecological restoration projects, typically in the same watershed or general area where resource damages occur.
For a copy of the settlement agreement, visit: http://www.nj.gov/dep/docs/elpaso-nrd-settlement.pdf
For more information on the DEP's Office of Natural Resource Restoration, visit: http://www.nj.gov/dep/nrr/
source: NJ DEP
The dam removal project is being done and financed by El Paso Corp. (now Kinder Morgan, Inc.), under the terms of a landmark agreement secured last year by the DEP as compensation to the public for harm to natural resources caused by past pollution facilities operated by or affiliated with El Paso.
This second Raritan River dam to be removed is known as the Roberts Street Dam and was previously known as the Dead River Dam. It straddles Bridgewater and Hillsborough townships. Its removal will open up a large segment of the Raritan River for fish spawning.
The elimination of the Roberts Street Dam will further increase water flow and habitat improvements realized from removal of the Calco Dam in Bridgewater last summer, which was the first phase of this three-step process.
The removal of all three targeted dams will open up 10 miles of migratory fish habitat along a stretch of the Raritan that twists through a highly diverse residential, commercial and agricultural portion of Somerset County that includes Bridgewater, Hillsborough, Bound Brook, Somerville and Manville.
It also will open up about 17 miles of tributaries, including portions of the Millstone River, to spawning. None of the dams were built for flood control.
The targeted dams include:
The Robert Street Dam, a 6 ½-foot-high sheet piling and concrete dam located at river mile 27.9. It was constructed prior to 1930 for purposes that are not known today. This dam failed and was reconstructed in 1963.
Calco Dam, located at river mile 20.9 and built by the Calco Chemical Co. in 1938 to disperse chemicals from its facility. The dam was essentially a large concrete pipe spanning the river that most recently carried and dispersed wastewater into the river for the Somerset Raritan Valley Sewerage Authority. The authority constructed a new outfall for that purpose. Calco Dam was demolished in 2011.
The Nevius Street Dam, located at river mile 27. The rock and mortar dam was built in 1901 for aesthetic purposes and later retrofitted to provide water to ponds on the Duke Estate. The DEP and El Paso are working on a future plan to ensure the river continues to feed water to these ponds after the dam is removed. Removal is anticipated in 2013.
Fish that will benefit from the removal of the dams are American shad, American eel, herring, and striped bass, which once migrated in prodigious numbers through the gravelly shallows of the Upper Raritan.
The voluntary settlement with El Paso resolved Natural Resource Damage claims made by the DEP against the Houston-based company that stemmed from contamination at EPEC Polymers Inc. in Flemington, Hunterdon County; Nuodex Inc. in Woodbridge, Middlesex County; EPEC Polymers Inc. in Burlington City, Burlington County; and the Eagle Point Refinery in West Deptford, Gloucester County. Investigations and/or cleanups are under way at those sites.
The DEP uses funds secured from Natural Resource Damage settlements toward ecological restoration projects, typically in the same watershed or general area where resource damages occur.
For a copy of the settlement agreement, visit: http://www.nj.gov/dep/docs/elpaso-nrd-settlement.pdf
For more information on the DEP's Office of Natural Resource Restoration, visit: http://www.nj.gov/dep/nrr/
source: NJ DEP
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