Sampling Fish in Streams with Seines: Costs of Recording Data by Haul

Abstract

Data from stream fish community samples obtained with seines are often recorded in the form of a species list with abundances, measures of total effort, and overall measures of habitat in the reach sampled. With a little more effort, investigators can significantly enhance the value of the data by recording this information for each seine haul rather than aggregating by reach. The objective of this study was to measure the added cost, in terms of time, of recording data by seine haul. While doing 11 community samples with seines, I timed four components of each seine haul: the time that the seine was in the water sampling, the time spent processing the fish, the time spent recording data for each seine haul, and the time spent getting ready for the next seine haul. I found that recording data by seine haul increased the time to make seine hauls from 8% to 34% (median of 12% or 7 min added to each hour of work). The benefits of recording data by seine haul include providing the flexibility to standardize in unforeseen circumstances, providing better quality control, and providing data at two spatial scales instead of one.