Inventories of Intertidal and Estuarine Fishes of Acadia National Park - Project Proposal

Moring, John

Acadia National Park is part of the Northeast Temperate Network, and inventory and monitoring activities are becoming increasingly important to the long-term management goals of the Park. Summaries of past studies of freshwater fish resources of Acadia National Park have been issued (Bowes et al. 1999) and more detailed inventories (with relative abundance assessments) are undergoing final reviews (Moring et al. 2001). However, detailed inventories of fishes of estuaries and intertidal areas adjacent to Park lands are very limited. The objectives of this research are to (1) inventory fish species found in tidepools at locations adjacent to Park lands on Mount Desert Island and Schoodic Peninsula, and (2) conduct more detailed inventories of estuarine fishes at Northeast Creek, Frazer Creek, Bass Harbor Marsh, and 10 other locations over different seasons and estuarine locations. Fishes will be inventoried during two field seasons, 2001 and 2002. This is strictly an inventory process and is not intended to be a long-term monitoring protocol. Thus, quantitative sampling procedures will not be utilized that will allow for repetitive comparisons in future years. Rather, the objective is to sample as many diverse habitats as possible in the intertidal and estuarine zones to maximize the resultant species lists. Intertidal sampling and estuarine sampling can not be placed within a convenient experimental sampling design because dates and times of sampling must, to a large extent, be based on tidal cycles. The Bay of Fundy and waters adjacent to Acadia National Park have some of the highest tidal ranges in the world. Some locations and their inhabitants are only accessible during -0.0 m tides, while much estuarine sampling will be conducted during flood tides. In addition, many suitable tides occur at night, which limits sampling because of visibility and safety concerns, and inclement weather conditions adversely affect visibility for intertidal sampling. Because of this, there only will be a finite number of sampling days available each year to accomplish this inventory, and these do not occur on a regular sampling basis. Two seasons of sampling will be necessary to adequately document the fish populations. All data regarding fauna and location will be entered by the investigators into the National Park Service NPSpecies Database, with guidance from the Park biologists (Wildlife) and data management technicians. The Park has requested that one to three specimens of each species be collected for the Park=s reference collection. The Principal Investigator will confer with the Park=s museum curator concerning preservation, labeling, and cataloging specimens for the NPS Collections Management program.