Sturgeon Guard Recap

To start off, I will go over a recap of Chad and my service learning project. That is I will briefly describe what we did and were we went. Our service learning project was Sturgeon Guard. We were working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural resources in their attempt to protect these prehistoric creatures during their long and tough journey up the streams and rivers to bread every spring. These fish are especially vulnerable during this time of the year because of the tremendous strains that are put on them in terms of making the long trek up the river and going through with the acts of spawning. It was our job to see that there were no outside forces tampering with their missions because they are unable to protect themselves. The sturgeons journey up stream is a long one but once they have reached their spawning grounds they will find a fish of the opposite sex and spawn for hours until they have finished then they return to the lake or river system where they had originally came from.
I learned a lot from this experience. It was quite amazing to see such things happening in the wild instead of only hearing about it in lab and lecture. It was interesting seeing it and noticing things that you wouldn’t normally think of. One such thing is the actual act of breading. The sturgeon breed externally which mean that the female release the eggs and then the male releases the sperm on them in the rocks. I had never seen this until this project and it was really cool. The female would appear first and would come up into as shallow of water as she could on top of rocks. The females were normally bigger than the male and averaged between 5 and 6 feet long. Then not long after the male, which was normally between 3 and 4 feet long would swim up right next to her as close as possible. The female would then release her eggs into the water and immediately after, the male would begin to shake violently and releasing his sperm. I’m not sure what the purpose of the shaking was but I would imagine it was to stir up the eggs and the sperm and make sure they fertilize. Then after it was all over with, the two, or sometimes more fish, would drift off into the deeper water only to return minutes later and repeat the process.
It was unbelievable how this project can be applied to bio 160. I could recognize a lot of aspects of reproduction we went over in class and had a much better understanding of the situation prior to getting there because of class. Having done this project, I was able to apply what I had learned in Bio 160 to the real world.

Sturgeon Patrol

The service learning project changed my views on learning. It opened my mind up to a whole new method of acquiring knowledge. Before Bio 160 I have never really done a whole lot of volunteering. Just a couple of hours here and there for school.
What I liked is how the project that I picked related to class. In this project we covered a couple different areas that were discussed in class. One of these areas that the project targeted heavily on was wildlife conservation. While doing sturgeon guard I had the chance to step back and look at the impacts humans have on the world around them. When looking at the sturgeon I can see that without the help of conservationist they might not be around today. With the management of the DNR a healthy population is maintained and people still have the chance to fish for sturgeon. Without the management, the sturgeons are very vulnerable to over harvest by humans and their population would be in jeopardy. I felt that Andy and I helped do our part in conservation by being there and making sure no person decided to harm the vulnerable spawning sturgeon. By volunteering in this field I realized that humans need to realize their impacts in this world and they need to be aware of what they can do to help maintain and improve our world.
Another aspect that we covered during this project was having a chance to witness the biology of animals as we disused in class. One of the most obvious sights was that of the reproduction of fishes. We not only got to see how the sturgeon naturally interacted with one another but we also had the chance to view close up encounters of the actual spawning process. We not only witnessed it, but because of class, we understood what was happening and why the fish acted in such a manner. Besides the sturgeon we also witnessed other wildlife. We saw carp, suckers, ducks, downy woodpeckers, robins, and many more. We even had the chance to hear a beaver slapping its tail on the water at us to warn others of our presence. It was nice to take what we learned from lab and be able to identify all sorts of different animals.
The biggest thing for me personally to get out of the project was to volunteer in a field that I am interested in getting a career in. Being a fisheries major, this project was right up my alley. I had the chance to talk to the wardens on duty about studies being done on the sturgeon and also how the fish act and why. I plan on taking the knowledge acquired and using it when planning for that dream job. Overall I feel this project was a success and I plan on volunteering for this next year.

Sturgeon Patrol Update 1

This week in sturgeon patrol I was expecting to receive an email from the coordinator of the program concerning details about our volunteering. The schedule was to be posted by April 1 but was not posted. I received an email that information would be sent out by Friday afternoon concerning the missing information and it still did not come. I did find out some information about what we are going to be doing from some who are involved while I was making phone calls. It sounds as though Chad Leanna and I will need to arrive a little before 7:00 pm where we will be briefed about what we need to do. This will include making sure people don’t tamper with the fish while they spawn. The locations we will be watching include shallow stretches of the river as well as some commonly used rock piles that are popular for the sturgeon. The shift will be from 7 to 7 and the program will provide us with 3 separate meals including dinner when we arrive, a midnight snack, and a breakfast before we leave in the morning. We signed up for 3 different night shifts on April 23, 24, and 30. Hopefully by next week the dnr will have a schedule out that will let us know when we will be watching the sturgeon. The reason for the delay on scheduleing could be because of the weather because the movement of the sturgeon as well as when they spawn is directly dependant on the weather and the water temperature. If the conditions are not right then the fish will not move up into the river.

Sturgeon Patrol

Every spring in Wisconsin on the Wolf River the sturgeon come to spawn. The wolf river is the only place in North America where the public can come and view this event. This is also the time when the sturgeon is the most vulnerable to poachers. Chad Leanna and I are going to volunteer our time for our service learning project patrolling the shores of the Wolf River making sure that nobody harasses the sturgeon during this very important time in their reproductive cycle, while they are spawning. We are going to be doing this through the Oshkosh DNR and will be taking a night shift from 7 pm to 7 am because we have classes during the day. The job entails taking a post on the shoreline and watching for people who could attempt to interrupt the fish during their run to spawn. This should be a great opportunity to learn about the reproduction of fish and more about these prehistoric animals.

Sturgeon Patrol

For the service learning project Andy Kramer and I are going to volunteer to be sturgeon guards. What sturgeon guards do is protect the sturgeon from illegal harvest or harassment by people. This is in late April and early May. The sturgeon come up the Wolf River to spawn. The Wolf River is the only place in North America where the public can view sturgeon spawning. During spawning the fish are extremely vulnerable to poaching because they are more focused on reproducing. To do this we have to volunteer online through e-mail with the Oshkosh DNR office. We will most likely be running a nightshift because we have classes during the day. While doing this project I hope to expand my knowledge of the sturgeon spawning process and also to get some background with working with fish. Since I am a fisheries major I think that this project will not only benefit my resume` but I think that it is a great opportunity to learn about the field itself.