Our drought situation really made an impact on research biologists in 2014 and 2015, but this year is much different.Â
"Fish need water to survive and we haven't had it for four years," said biologist Travis Hawks.Â
On the plus side though, the Truckee River is showing signs of improvement and biologists can now do what they love on a much bigger scale.Â
"Oh no we never forget how to do it. It's always a fun project," said biologist Kim Tisdale.Â
It's called electrofishing. A kind of research biologists haven't been able to do completely for quite a while. In 2014 they had to cancel it completely and in 2015 they could only survey a couple of transects.Â
"It's basically putting a pulse of electricity into the river and any fish that are within 20 feet of the equipment get temporarily stunned," said Hawks.
This allows the fish to float to the top so they can then be caught and measured for research.Â
"They come up out of it pretty quickly and it's probably a little bit uncomfortable for them but it's not lethal," added Tisdale.Â
Eventually the fish are returned to the river where they belong. The process is the same for each of the different locations, but the difficulty level may be different because of the elements as well as the rockiness of the route. They still have to catch fish, which can be interesting to watch. The stream flows were pretty high in Verdi Thursday morning. The group of biologists were able to catch more fish at their second location for the day near Gold Ranch. The health of the river is becoming more and more apparent.Â
"Densities are still lower than normal but it's positive in that all the fish are there and they just need a little bit of time to recover," said Tisdale.Â
A good upcoming winter season would help as well.Â
