From 9 December 2015 through 13 December 2015 my Rajamangala University collecting team and I conducting fieldwork hosted by Dr. Chaiwut Grudpan (Ubon Ratchathani University) in Ubon Ratchathani Province, Thailand. Our target species were the Thai river sprat Clupeichthys aesarnensis, the Laotian shad Tenualosa thibaudeaui, and most of all, the noodlefish Sundasalanx mekongensis. We sampled at fish markets in the cities of Ubon Ratchathani and Khong Chiem and in the Mun River (~15.305902, 105.488729), Mekong River (~15.318634, 105.511854), and Sirindhorn Reservoir (~15.1845266, 105.3970173) with small seines. We also had the amazing opportunity of helping some local fishers fish with a huge 40 meter long by 10 meter deep seine. One end was held by a team of people on shore while the second end was towed behind a small boat to form a big loop. In Ubon Ratchathani we successfully collected some very nice shad and sprat specimens, but unfortunately we did not catch any noodlefish! The hunt for the noodlefish will have to resume on future collecting trips.
From November 29th to December 9th we finished our collecting in Southwestern Thailand. We collected in the provinces of Trang, Krabi, Phatthalung, and Songkla in the Andaman Sea, Gulf of Thailand, and Songkla Lake. We were able to get several more new species of clupeiforms. The local fishers were very kind. Some let me go fishing with them and keep specimens and others let sort through their catches and select samples. Most of the specimens were captured with gill nets or fish traps, but some specimens we collected in Songkla province were caught via trawling in the Gulf of Thailand. This was my third year conducting fieldwork in Taiwan. I sampled at the usual sites and visited fish markets. I managed to collect 2 species that I have not collected before. Very exciting! Additionally I led an informal gut content analysis (characterizing the diets of fish) workshop at Taiwan National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in collaboration with Dr. Chien-Hsien Kuo (National Chiayi University), Dr. Hans Ho (National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium), and Dr. Cheng-Hao Tang (National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium). The workshop was attended by seven graduate students and was a lot of fun! Dates: 22 November 2015 - 28 November 2015 During the second segment of my fieldwork in Thailand I collected fish in Trang province and on Phuket Island. I obtained specimens from fish markets, by beach seining, and by hiring local gill net fishers to take me fishing. I was unable to hire fishers during my fieldwork in Taiwan and Australia because it was against the law so I am very excited to be able to here! So far I have managed to collect 12 clupeiform species this trip. I hope to increase this number during the remaining 3 1/2 weeks of my fieldwork. Dates: 15-21 November 2015 |
AuthorJosh Egan is a graduate student in the University of Minnesota's Conservation Biology Graduate Program. Archives
March 2017
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