Re: RE: NANFA-- Water and Fish Monitoring Day

John Bongiovanni (bongi_at_cox-internet.com)
Tue, 3 Sep 2002 15:49:00 -0500

Great Idear
>
> From: "Hoover, Jan J ERDC-EL-MS" <HOOVERJ_at_wes.army.mil>
> Date: 2002/09/03 Tue PM 03:27:27 CDT
> To: "'nanfa_at_aquaria.net'" <nanfa at aquaria.net>
> Subject: RE: NANFA-- Water and Fish Monitoring Day
>
> The Clean Water Act and the North American Native Fishes Association were
> both started in 1972 ! Let's do something as group to celebrate these
> anniversaries.
>
> Friday 18 Oct 2002 is National Water Monitoring Day. Thousands of volunteers
> are needed to test local waters (especially those not regularly monitored by
> state and federal agencies) so that areas of degraded water quality can be
> identified and delineated on a national scale. I urge all interested
> members of NANFA to read about and participate in this worthwhile effort:
> www.yearofcleanwater.org/events/volunteer.htm
> This could also be a great excuse to organize a field trip, collect some
> fish, and, possibly, begin our own tradition of annual fish-habitat surveys.
>
>
> Previously, some members have suggested that NANFA establish a national fish
> monitoring day, similar in spirit to the Audubon Society's Christmas Bird
> Count. Nothing has come of this, I think, because there has been no focus
> for the collection of such information. Here is the focus and here is an
> excellent opportunity for beginning such an effort. We can collect water
> quality data according to the specs of the water monitoring program,
> habitat and fish data according to our own guidelines (for suggestions see
> NANFA field collection data sheet:
> www.nanfa.org/misc/collection_data_sheet.pdf ).
>
> Test kits cost $16.50 and are available through the Year of Clean Water
> website. These kits allow volunteers to test dissolved oxygen, pH, water
> clarity (i.e., Secchi transparency), and temperature up to 50 times. The
> kits are easy to use and recommended for ages "8 and up." The NANFA BOD has
> indicated that it may be able to help defray cost of test kits for
> reps/members that choose to participate. Use of this particular test kit,
> however, is not required. You can use other test kits or water quality
> probes. Also, the date is symbolic. Data will be accepted if they are
> collected any day during the period 12-27 October.
>
> Sampling sites are registered online. I did so today. It was easy. You
> just click on the map of the US until you find your water body, enter the
> latitude and longitude (it changes as you click on the map), and then
> provide some background information (where you will sample, name of stream
> ,etc.). It only takes a few minutes.
>
> There are a lot of areas so far with few or no sampling stations registered:
> e.g., Gulf and South Atlantic Coastal Plain, much of the midwest and Great
> Plains. Many states have had no volunteers. Until today, only one site had
> been registered for Mississippi.
>
> I do not know yet whether the water quality sampling will be a recurring
> national effort. If it is, it will be encouragement for us to continue and
> expand our own work. If not, it could serve as a launching platform for
> our own organization-wide effort at data acquisition and outreach. Also, by
> notifying our local newspapers, this could serve as good publicity for the
> organization and possibly even a recruiting tool.
>
> I hope that many of you will commemorate the 30th anniversaries of the Clean
> Water Act and NANFA by joining in. Contact me if you are interested. I
> would like to compile all our data, trip reports, photos, and anecdotes, so
> that someone (me, if no one else steps forward) can write an article about
> the first-ever National Water (and Fish) Monitoring Day for American
> Currents.
>
>
>
> Jan Hoover
> /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
> / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
> / Association"
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/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org