The purpose of this course is to develop participant fish identification skills and knowledge of regional freshwater fish species.  Participants will learn an overall system for identifying fish.  Topics include collection labeling and preservation, sample processing, lab safety, waste preservative disposal alternatives, distribution maps, dichotomous keys, morphometric techniques (e.g., counting scales and rays, extracting and counting pharyngeal teeth), and relative qualitative anatomical characters.  Insights and tricks-of-the-trade will be provided by experienced instructors.  Characteristics of major taxonomic groups within each family will provide the basis to approach species-level identification.  In addition, numerous specimens of look-alike species in the minnow, shiner, and darter groups will be used for detailed study. Although emphasis will be placed on the families Cyprinidae, Percidae, Centrarchidae, Catostomidae, and Ictaluridae, specimens from 25 North American freshwater fish families will be available for study. This course is "hands on" and lab-intensive.  Field exercises will provide fresh specimens for identification.

Who Should Attend:  Anyone needing fish identification skills for activities such as ecological research projects, predator-prey studies, or assemblage-level biomonitoring using fish.

Length:  5 days/36 hours

Objectives:

• Identify unknown fish by following methods as described in the course;
• Use proper fish collection labeling and preservation techniques;
• Discuss the benefits of using a combination of reference sources for fish identification;
• Use distributional maps as an aid to fish identification;Use dichotomous keys;
• Discuss identification tricks-of-the- trade; and
• Correctly obtain morphometric information needed for fish identification.