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Phase 4 : Fish Abundance & Diversity Survey

In addition to surveying benthic substrate and organisms and water quality, fish abundance and diversity is another indicator of overall health since fish play an important role in the ecosystem of our shorelines. This is probably the most difficult of all surveys to conduct for two reasons. First of all, there is a far greater number of fish species than benthic organisms for students to memorize and it is often difficult to tell the difference between species. Secondly unlike benthic organisms, fish do not stay still. If a student needs more time to correctly identify a benthic organism, they have it since most of the organisms will not move. Fish on the other hand, require immediate, split-second identification. There may be sites where many fish are swimming around, making it even more difficult to quickly and correctly identify many fish at one time. For these reasons, you may want to consider doing a practice run with this survey before collecting the real data. Students will not realize how quick they need to be until they are in the water trying to collect the data.

Laying Transect Lines

Transect lines are laid down in the same manner as the transect line technique, parallel to the shoreline at varying depths.

Conducting The Survey

Quadrats are not used in this survey. Instead, 2 students snorkel on either side of the transect line and tally the number of fish that they see as they move along the transect line.

Students should try to cover the length of the site in one continuous snorkel. If you know that one transect line will not reach all the way across, use multiple transects. If there is still not enough line, have students continue across the rest of the length, trying to keep moving in a straight line. Students need to be careful not to count the same fish more than once and to try and tally as much of the fish as possible. Once the first transect line is completed, students can roll up the lines and move on to the next depth.