Electrofishing Certification Field Day

Patrick Cooney's avatar
Patrick Cooney
Thursday, June 28, 2018

Electrofishing Certification Course, by the numbers:

  • 17 fisheries professionals received certification
  • 6 States of residence
  • 10 entities (Represented by Federal, State, County, City, Tribal, Watershed Council, and Private Consulting Firm)
  • 4 backpack electrofishers (Apex, LR-24, LR-20B, Model 12)
  • 1/4 mile electrofishing transect
  • 30 Hz, 12% Duty Cycle, 300 Volts
  • 8,488 Seconds of Effort
  • >600 fish (sculpin, stickleback, minnow)
  • 3 blacktail deer (mom and two fawns) visited us
  • 6 Cedar Waxwing birds ate the aquatic insect hatch as we electrofished
  • 2 days of awesomeness!

We heard you loud and clear. You asked for an electrofishing certification course that is appropriate for all levels of experience, and one that explains how to setup, dial-in, and use an electrofisher from a biologists perspective. The incredible feedback and interaction during our courses and the continued contact after our courses indicate the confidence our certification course provides fisheries professionals to conduct valuable research in a wide array of environments.

Feedback from our most recent course:

The method of teaching was the biggest strength of the course because we interactively discussed the critical materials multiple times, each time with a new method that allowed people of all experience levels to understand and comprehend.
The positive atmosphere created by the enthusiastic instructor got everyone actively involved.
The electrical theory was taught in a way I had never heard before, and provided contextual evidence for me to be able to easily identify optimal electrical settings under varying environmental conditions.
Instructor provided a realistic approach to safety in the field based on a lot of field experience.