Student Projects 2016

During the summer of 2016, students under the guidance of Mayra Sanchez photographed the resident population of striped bass in Eel Pond, Woods Hole, MA and took oxygen measurements in the vicinity of the fish.

In the fall of 2016 a tagging program was initiated at the Eel Pond, Woods Hole, MA.  Eleven fish were tagged with external tags and PIT tags (see Tagging Techniques) were placed in their body cavity.  Did tagged striped bass return to Eel Pond ? See Surprising Results!!  We also saved 3 scales from each fish to determine their genetic composition.

Many questions remain and include:

–How do the striped bass find Eel Pond from year-to-year? How would you design experiments to answer this question?

–How are new striped bass recruited into Eel Pond? How would you design experiments to answer this question?

–Do striped bass stay in Eel Pond 24/7?  How would you design experiments to answer this question?

Using the data available on the web, develop a hypothesis on what the trigger is for striped bass to leave on their southern migration in the fall.   How you would test your hypothesis?

Data might include:

Eel Pond water temperature

https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/met.html bdate=20170817&edate=20170917&units=standard&timezone=GMT&id=8447930&interval=6

Day length in Falmouth, MA

Food supply

Angle of sun in Falmouth, MA