WRT aquarium

It is now near the end of the winter term. The fish have grown, and we had to take more aggresive measures to maintain the water quality. We also had to switch to sinking fish feed as the fish were just not interested in the floating food.

Next year we are thinking of a mixture of fish (brook, rainbow, charr, etc.) to add some more interest to the tank.

Deployment Day 2008

This year Deployment Day was held on April 2, 2008 in Bedford, NS. It was a clear sunny and day with fairly high offshore wind.

Using a Sechii disk. Turbidity readings hovered around the 13-14 foot mark.

Lab Line water collection bottle for collecting discrete water samples directly into a Nalgene collection bottle.

Eckman dredge is used to obtain a discrete benthic sample.

The Alpha or Van Dorn water collection sampler is used to collect a discrete water sample at a known depth. Unlike the Niskin sampler, it cannot be ganged together on a single line.

Habitat Assessmsnt Fieldtrip - 2008

Our first stop was at to view the Cherubini Metal Works Ltd. (http://www.cherubinigroup.com/) project in Eastern Passage (20T 0458474N; 4942202E approx.). DFO determined that the work would destroy fish habitat and would require an Authorization under the Fisheries Act. This also meant that an environmental assessment would have to be undertaken under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) before the Authorization could be issued. The Authorization required that the proponent (Cherubini) provide habitat compensation for the fish habitat that would be destroyed. This was done in the form of two artificial reefs created with reef balls (http://www.reefball.org/) off McNabs Island and at Paddys Head at the mouth of the Harbour

The second stop was at Lawrencetown Beach. The Province removed the existing wooden bridge and re-aligned the approaches and built a new bridge (20T 0471624N; 4944026E). This work was completed last summer. The re-alignment resulted in the loss of some salt marsh requiring the need for a Fisheries Act Authorization, a CEAA review, and habitat compensation.

Old bridge before removal.

A Bailey bridge (http://www.baileybridge.com/) is constructed to divert traffic while the old bridge is removed and the new one is constructed.

The footings are constructed for the new bridge next to the Bailey bridge.

The new bridge is finished in 2007; the Bailey bridge is removed.

Environmental setting for the bridge over the Lawrencetown River.

The habitat compensation project took place down the road a short way at a small marsh that had been cut off for years by the railway berm (20T 0472306N; 4943432E). The compensation had been determined to be a 3:1 ratio. The marsh that was restored was far larger than that so the Province is allowed to "bank" the remainder of the restored marsh to be used as compensation against future projects.

A culvert was placed in the railway berm to allow the passage of tidal water to restore the marsh.

Environmental setting for Lawrencetown compensation project

This year's macroinvertebrate survey fieldtrip to Paper Mill Run has been postponed three times due to snow or rain. It was postponed a forth time because the last rainfall was so intense that major flooding is taking place on the run.

Water Resources Aquarium

Well, the Water Resources aquarium is now up and running. Fish became availabile sooner than expected, so we had to scramble a bit to get the tank and water prepared to receive them.

The fish (brook trout) were also larger than we expected and the tank is a bit crowded but, through careful management, we hope to be able to handle the extra biomass.

Today was the first feeding. We are using 3mm floating aquaculture pellets. They are a bit reluctant to take it, but should come around. There is one "runt" who seems to be a bit of a loner that stands off from the rest. It will need to be watched to ensure it is receiving food.

Today (Friday, Jan.25) the tank was cleaned, some water exchanged, and ammonia reducer added, so the trout should be happy for the weekend.

This photo shows the water chiller which keeps the water around 12 C and the water filter.

This photo shows the 20 brook trout fingerlings minutes after being introduced to the tank.

Fieldtrip 1, January 16, 2008

These are the UTM coordinates for the 3 stops we made on our fieldtrip today.

Stop 1:

monitoring station 1 - Fox Brook: 0445731N, 4948266E

monitoring station 2 - Kearney Lake Park wharf: 0445804N, 4948454E

Stop 2:

monitoring station 3 - culverts under Kearney Lake Rd: 0463440N, 4949780E

Stop 3:

monitoring station 5: Paper Mill Lake dam: 0445834N, 4951474E

As mentioned today, the following link contains additional data for some of the lakes in this watershed. If you use this data please give the source proper credit in your report. (www.halifax.ca/environment/lakesandrivers.html)