"Fish On"-Line

Biologist weighing fish
USGS

The USGS Idaho Water Science Center and the USGS National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Great Basin Information Project have partnered together to develop a management and delivery system for aquatic biological monitoring data. The Idaho Water Science Center has data collected from many aquatic locations throughout Idaho and surrounding states that describes algae, aquatic invertebrate, and fish populations. These data were stored in separate spreadsheets, which made searching and cross-referencing across samples difficult. This collaboration migrated the data to a relational database and made the data web-accessible, so anyone who needed the data had ready access.

This site currently allows users to search for aquatic data in Idaho and surrounding states by selecting a sampling site or a stream. These data can be filtered further by fish species and date of sample. We've linked this site to the FISHBASE web site so detailed natural history information is available for each fish family and species.


Search "Fish On"-line in one of two ways:
Using Pull-Down menus Using a map
Search using Pull-down Menus This option allows you to investigate fish data by specify a stream name using pull-down menus to view data from all sampling sites on that stream.

You can then further refine your search by individual sample and/or fish species.

Search using menus.
This option allows you to investigate data from individual sampling locations by clicking on a map to view data from that sampling site.

You can then further refine your search by selecting an individual sample and/or fish species.

Search using a map.
Search using a map

The importance of aquatic biological community data

Aquatic biological community data integrates both water quality and habitat conditions. Biological communities (fish, macroinvertebrates, and algae) help managers determine if a stream is supportive of certain species such as cold water biota or pollution tolerant species. Community data has been used recently to determine beneficial use of streams and rivers required for the total maximum daily load (TMDL) process. Long term trend analysis of aquatic communities also helps managers evaluate best management practice (BMP) effectiveness. Aquatic communities are highly correlated with water quality and habitat conditions and are a good indicator of the decline or improvement in the quality of a water body.

The NBII Program is administered by the Biological Informatics Program of the U.S. Geological Survey
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