Last year, our annual fish monitoring across the National Capital Region was postponed due to necessary travel restrictions and social distance measures as the COVID-19 outbreak raged.
It certainly feels like a breath of fresh air for our research staff to pick up this project where we left it and resume the fish monitoring among 37 streams of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.
In July, a team of research technicians from Stroud Water Research Center will be electrofishing and characterizing fish habitat in several streams of the Prince William Forest Park in Virginia. The data collected are used by the National Park Service to increase their knowledge and understanding of the status of fish populations in the park.
Even though a few COVID-19 safety measures will still be necessary, the Stroud Center team is eager to get back out there. Fish have waited long enough for a harmless recount and body measure, and we are ready to make it happen.
Laura Zgleszewski and Maria Scarborough weigh, identify, and record fish and amphibians (2019). 
Zgleszewski collects a rock scraping sample for microbial analysis.
