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Fish Study

            In the summer of 2006, a new study was added to the Shell Creek Watershed Project. The study was conducted to analyze the various types of fish present in Shell Creek. The method used to catch the fish involved a 10 foot curved seining net. Samples are collected from May to August, corresponding to the water sampling days.

The following is a chart of the fish that we found and what has found in previous studies.  

                                   1939      1972         1985       1989    1991       1992         1995    2006

Black Bullhead

 

 

X

X

X

 

X

X

Carp

 

X

X

 

X

X

X

 

Fathead Minnow

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Sand Shiner

 

X

X

 

X

X

X

X

Red Shiner

X

X

X

 

X

X

 

X

Bigmouth Shiner

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brassy Minnow

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

Channel Catfish

 

X

X

 

X

 

 

 

Emerald Shiner

 

 

 

 

X

 

 

 

Flathead Chub

 

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

Freshwater Drum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plains Minnow

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quilback

 

X

X

 

 

 

 

 

River  Carpsucker

 

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

Shortnose gar

 

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

Shorthead redhorse

 

X

X

 

 

 

 

 

Western Silvery Minnow

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

Silver Chub

 

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

Flathead Catfish

 

 

 

 

X

 

 

 

Speckled Chub

 

 

 

 

 

X

 

 

Green Sunfish

 

 

 

 

 

X

 

X

Yellow Bullhead

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

X

            Fish diversity varies greatly between years. We want to analyze the types of fish that withstand changes in water quality. With the information that we have received from Phil Chvala at the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, the fish diversity has greatly worsened compared to previous studies. The data shows more diversity in 2006 study than in 1995. At this point, no conclusions can be made about the fish diversity present in the Shell Creek.

            In the 2007 year of the fish study we started focusing more on quantity, with last years study mainly focused on diversity. With our new study we can determine how many of one species is in a certain site. We were interested in fish population compared to water quality.

            We found that there isn’t much of a trend in certain fish found at a specific site, our findings are pretty random. In terms of dissolved oxygen site 5 was the poorest and the best was site 3. Site 5 had an average of 1.74 ppm, In comparison to the rest of the sites which had an average of 4.21 ppm. Also on July 6th we found a major fish kill at Site 5. There was a noticeable amount of dead fish floating on top of the water. We contacted Phil Chvala at the Game & Parks and he forwarded the call to DEQ for further observation. The DEQ is now investigating what caused the kill. 

            We changed our procedure a little bit this year. We are still using a 15 ft seine, but now we put up a block net approximately 20 ft down stream. We did this to try and make it a more accurate survey. This helped with catching larger fish such as carp. We plan on using these procedures next year with maybe a few adjustments. 

The following chart shows the quantity of fish we found in Shell Creek during the summer of 2007.