Wednesday December 14, 2011
Armed with a half-dozen backpack electrofishers, a crew of “netters” and “shockers” waded through the Lower Kings River last week in search of rainbow trout. FISHBIO assisted with multi-pass depletion electrofishing efforts as part of the Kings River Conservation District’s (KRCD) annual rainbow trout population study in the Kings River below Pine Flat Dam in California’s Central Valley. The annual monitoring is preformed to assess the response of the trout population to habitat enhancements conducted over the past decade, as required by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The Kings River Fisheries Management Program (KRFMP) has implemented extensive gravel augmentation, boulder placement, side channel enhancement, and riparian planting. The KRFMP is a partnership between the Kings River Water Association (KRWA), California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) and the KRCD working to enhance and maintain a sustainable trout fishery on the lower Kings River.
