The Only Way to Fish: Electroschocking Techniques

How to Sample Fish Using an Electroshocker

Electroshocking in a shallow pool
Source: Wikipedia 

One great way to sample the fish in a given body of water is to use an Electroshocker to send a current through the water to momentarily stun the fish and bring them to the surface. Using an electroshocker requires a license and someone who is proficient in understanding how to operate the machine. However it is usually fairly easy to contact someone in the local parks department or fish and game department who is a proficient researcher with the necessary knowledge and licenses and in position of an electroshocker for fish research and study.  

What You Need

Some other materials you will need are: rubber waders, preferable chest waders, rubber gloves for the person who is using the electroshocker, fiberglass nets to keep the current from traveling up the net pole. It is also useful to have large buckets to collect and hold the fish in until they can be identified and released; also, a seine net to place at the end of a riffle or run to catch any fish that get caught in the current is very useful.

Where and How to Shock

Once you have an electroshocker it is important to scout out a good area for sampling fish or just for exploring what kinds of fish live in that region. Good spots for electroshocking include small streams and creeks with riffles, runs, and pools, small regions of a river where one can use a boat shocker to sample the region. It is good to scout out the area before hand as the elctroshocker equipment is heavy and cumbersome and although fairly easy to use and operate you would want to know what you are getting yourself into before you arrive at your electroshocking destination.

Once you have both your electroshocker and are at your destination you are ready to start sampling the fish via electroshocking. One person should be assigned to carry the electroshocker ( a backpack like device) they will also carry the rod that has a metal loop at the end which sends the current out to a metal cable “rat-tail” that hands off the back of the electroshocker and drags through the water. Both the loop at the end of the pole and the rat-tail must be submerged in the water for the electroshocker to function properly.  

Sampling Tips and Techniques

Some good electroscchocking techniques are to take a break after shocking each given region, riffle run or pool, and identify the sampled fish and release them back into the region they were sampled from. This reduces the negative impact that electroschocking has on the fish as well as allows the students and observers to get a better understanding of the morphological differences between species found in different stream regions.

Other good electroschocking practices are to have your electroschoking person wade from downstream to upstream with seine people and net people around to catch all the fish that are stunned.

What to Keep in Mind as You Electroshock

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When electroshocking it is important for the electroshocking person as well as the net and seine people to be aware of when the water is being shocked, because although the current is not usually enough to do any serious harm to anyone it is not comfortable. It doesn't have long term damaging effects to the fish, however it is not pleasant to feel the shock.

On several occasions when I have been out electroshocking I have stuck my hand in the water to see what the current felt like, and because I was not particularly close to the electroshocker it just felt like having your hand wake up from falling asleep. So the electrical current isn't comfortable but it's also not really harmful. However, I would recommend briefing your researchers before electroshocking so that they can better operate the electroschocker and be aware of how to electroshock safely.