Training Announcement
Fish Identification
FIS2220
Course Dates: January 3 - 7, 2011
Course Location: National Conservation Training Center
College Undergrad Credit: 2 semester hours Course Length: 5
days/36 hours
Instructors: Dan Cincotta, non-game fish biologist, West Virginia DNR and
Stuart Welsh, Assistant Coop. Unit Leader, West Virginia Cooperative Fish &
Wildlife Research Unit
Course Description: 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.
Characteristics of major taxonomic groups within each family will provide
the basis to approach species-level identification. 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: Natural resource professionals needing fish
identification skills for tasks such as ecological research projects,
predator-prey studies, or assemblage-level biomonitoring using fish.
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.
Cost: There is no tuition fee for FWS, NPS, or BLM personnel. Tuition is
$950 for other participants.
How to apply: To register,
Non-DOI employees: Please fill out this form:
http://training.fws.gov/documents/Application_Student.pdf and fax it to our
Registrar (304-876-7202).
DOI employees with a DOI Learn profile: Go to DOI Learn at
http://www.doi.gov/doilearn/ > Log-in > home page appears > click on
catalog > enable advanced search > click on course code and type in the
course code in the search box > when the course appears, click on the
details tab > click on the submit request tab and follow directions. Once
you are approved to take the class by your supervisor, you’ll get an email
directing you to go back into DOI Learn and select the course date you wish
to attend. That action will register you for the class. If you have
questions, the Registrar may be contacted at (304) 876-7692.
Questions: Please contact Matt Patterson, [email protected] or Lee
Crouse, [email protected] , NCTC Conservation Science and Policy Branch,
at 304/876-7444.
