Questions:
– How many digger logs did we install in Prevills brook and roughly how many sq meters of habitat did we repair in Prevills Brook please?
– Did we do any electro fishing in Prevills Brook or any of the feeder brook’s into Sandy Lake.
W.Regan Feb 4, 2025
Response: Damon Conrad, P.Eng., BSc.
Coordinator, Sackville Rivers Association, Feb 4, 2025
– We installed 17 structures in Peverills Brook between Big Sandy Lake and the Rifle Range property – this is equivalent to about 3,200 square meters of restoration.
– We have done some electrofishing on Peverills as part of our HADD project with DFO – here is an excerpt from the 2009 monitoring report outlining the electrofishing results.
Peverill’s Brook Electrofishing Survey July 2, 2009
Crew Leader: Colin O’Neil
Crew: Tim Kelly, Kate MacPhee, Will Brunner, Cyndi LeBlanc
Water Quality
Water Temperature: 19°C
Weather: Cloudy
Equipment: Smith-Root Model 15 POW Electrofisher
Voltage Setting: 400. Mode Switches J5
Sweep 1 – 9:15Am – 9:45Am
Sweep 2 – 10:00Am – 10:30AM
Table 7 – Electrofishing Survey dimensions
Length of Survey (m) Average Width of Study Area (m) Total area (m2)
73.41 9.58* 703
*Average taken from five river widths over representative habitat areas
Table 8 – Species caught per sweep
Species Sweep 1 Sweep 2 Total
Atlantic salmon 1 1 2
American eel 3 9 12
Smallmouth bass 0 1 1
Creek chub 0 1 1
White sucker 2 0 2
The area was electrofished to determine the effect the restoration work in Peverills Brook had on salmonid population. The data was to be analyzed using the Zippen removal method of population estimation with a three sweep procedure. After the second sweep the number of fish caught and the distribution of the catch did not fit the necessary assumptions in order to create a population estimation, so a third sweep was not performed. A possible reason for the low catch numbers was high water velocity in the survey area. The start point for the survey was just downstream of Site 1 at 44.74759° N, 63.68640° W and the end point was at the rock shelf that is Control Site 1 at 44.74697° N, 63.68655° W. Though the Atlantic salmon numbers were too low to analyze properly, they are clearly well below the Elson norm which necessitates close monitoring of the brook and any restoration activities undertaken therein.
There is some older electrofishing data from other sources, but it was sometimes unclear if the electrofishing took place on Big Sandy Lake or Little Sandy Lake, so I am not sure how useful some of it is to us.
Also View: Salmon Parr spotted at the top of Peverills Brook June 24, 2024