Fish surveys of the Upper Yukon and Tanana Rivers 2020–2022 ...

• Main Author: Cathcart, Nate
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2023
• Subjects: FOS Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; Alaska fishes; Pacific Salmon; Arctic grayling; Northern Dolly Varden; Dolly Varden charr; Electrofishing; fish community; Arctic; Yukon river; Alaska; Yukon
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0gb5mkm5d; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.0gb5mkm5d

From summer 2020 through fall 2022, Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), Division of Sport Fish staff will conduct a rapid, systematic inventory of anadromous and resident fish distribution and associated aquatic and riparian habitat in select drainages of the upper Tanana River and in select drainages of the Fortymile River and adjacent Yukon River drainages. This proposal is part two of a multi-year inventory effort that began in 2019, when project staff inventoried fish assemblages in Yukon & Tanana river drainages downstream of the 2020 study area. In 2020 project staff will continue where they left off and continue working upstream in those drainages. Target streams will be selected to fill gaps in coverage of the State of Alaska's Catalog of Waters Important for the Spawning, Rearing or Migration of Anadromous Fishes (AWC) in freshwater habitats expected to support anadromous fish populations likely to be impacted by human activities. Each of two crews will sample standardized target ... : Following ADF&G's AFFI protocols (contact [e-mail] for specific protocols), 2 crews, each with 2 members, will use helicopters to simultaneously sample fish communities in selected study stream reaches for approximately 12 days during the summer of 2020. Target survey sites will include wadeable headwater streams sampled with a backpack electrofisher, and un-wadeable streams (including mainstem rivers) sampled with a raft-mounted electrofisher. Two helicopters will provide access to the stream study sites for headwater and un-wadeable sample crews. Sites within the study area that have the highest potential for habitat degradation will be identified through consultation with the ADF&G Division of Habitat and Federal Land managers, and any sites they identify will be given a higher sampling priority. The proposed study area for 2020 also has an extensive road system along the Tanana River. In addition to using helicopters to access difficult-to-reach streams, project staff plan to use ...