Campaign Update: MA NFC, Going Where No Fish Conservation Group Has Gone...

The only way to get to the stream to pull a water sample for eDNA testing was to use a ladder…

Working under a grant from Newton Conservators, the Massachusetts chapter of NFC has expanded its urban/suburban eDNA metabarcoding testing into two new streams: Laundry Brook and Hammond Brook.

Like most streams in Newton, a suburb of Boston first developed in the 1600’s, these streams have been moved, dug down, walled in, buried, and just about everything else you could do to alter a waterway. Yet wild native fish persist, even though the long-held belief was that they didn’t…

eDNA metabarcoding has proven invaluable in regard to giving us an idea of what species of fish might be where. This includes finding American eels in the last place you would expect to find them.

After accessing some relatively easy to reach sample locations, MA NFC needed to get creative to fill in the holes. In order to pinpoint the location of fish, we need to spread out the samples. This required climbing some fences and lowering a ladder to reach the water…

Special thanks to MA NFC chair shane johnson, ma nfc board member Jeff Moore, newton conservators, and jonah ventures for stepping up to make this important project possible.