Susquehanna River and Monongahela River Sampling Trip

August 2008

            Dr. Tom Jones and five Marshall University students completed a two week field effort that included aquatic research sampling in two states. The group first traveled to Havre de Grace, MD, leaving Huntington on 10 August 2008. The students and Dr. Jones worked on the Susquehanna River near the Chesapeake Bay for three days. The primary focus for this project was the “rediscovery” of the Maryland Darter, Etheostoma sellare. This fish has not been collected since the mid 1980s and is thought to be extirpated from the Susquehanna River and may be extinct. Benthic trawling techniques were employed, and a new modified electric trawl, developed by Dr. Jones and his lab, was utilized (Figure 1). While on the Susquehanna River, the team also performed mussel SCUBA surveys to assess the river’s unionid mussel community (Figure 2). The Maryland Darter was not collected on this trip, but another effort is scheduled for December.

            On 15 August 2008, the research team began working on a large scale mussel sampling project of the Monongahela River in Pennsylvania. After winning the bid for the task announced by the Pennsylvania Division of Natural Resources, Dr. Jones and crew began sampling at the mouth of the Monongahela River where it meets the Allegheny River to form the Ohio River in Pittsburgh, PA. The group worked by SCUBA diving every day for nine days to complete the 31 site sampling project (Figure 3).

            The project required 12 five-minute dives at all 31 randomly selected sampling sites. Divers entered the water and searched in the upstream direction for five minutes. At 10 designated fixed sites, an underwater array was created with transect lines (10 m) in four directions based on the direction of flow (upstream, downstream, left, right). These fixed sites will be revisited next summer. At fixed sites, sampling also included 4 m² surber that included the top 5 cm of substrate to collect benthic macroinvertebrates, plankton, algae, etc. and 15 cm sediment samples to determine sediment composition based on particle size.

For more trip pictures, click here.

Figure 1: Crew working from Marshall’s “Sara D” deploying the electro-trawl on the Susquehanna.

Figure 2: Every live mussel collected was measured (length, width) and weighed. A photo was also taken recording date and site information.

Figure 3: Dive crews aboard “Sara D” (top) and “Ictiobus” (bottom). Pictured on “Sara D” are Sean Collins, Matt Kinsey and Jonny Hart (left to right). Pictured on “Ictiobus” are Tom Jones and Sean Reese (left to right).

Figure 4: Flags flown off the boats included the red and white Dive flag, blue and white Alpha flag, and green and white Marshall University flag.