During the summer of 2007 Dr. Thomas G. Jones, professor at Marshall University, along with a group of graduate and undergraduate students completed a large scale sampling project on the Ohio River.  The project begin at Pittsburgh, PA and spanned the entire 981 miles of the Ohio River and ended at Cairo, Ill, where the Ohio River meets the Mississippi River.  The two week sampling period  began on July 30, and extended through August 13, 2007.  During this two week span, samples of macroinvertebrates, mussels, benthic fishes and water chemistry were collected, filed in a database and taken to Marshall University were they were further studied.   

        The Ohio River consists of 19 locks and dams, each having its own respective pool.  The river was broken up by these pools and sampled randomly using two research vessels, "The SeaArk" and "The Shock Boat".  The larger of the two is a 24 foot SeaArk dive boat which all the diving was done from.  The second boat which we call "The Shock Boat" is a 18 foot modified skiff that was used for taking water chemistry, deploying the River Surveyor and  benthic trawling. (click to see the protocol page for all protocols used)

Dr. Jones

         We arrived in Pittsburgh Pa, on  July 30th around early evening.  After unloaded all the gear and reloading it on the boats we were finally able to put the boats in the water.