Matt Breece (USGS) and Mike Mangold assessing fish populations at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Photo taken by Sheila Eyler, USFWS, September 2005.

Tina McCrobie weighing a juvenile northern snakehead from the Potomac River. Photo by Mike Mangold, USFWS, September 2005.

The Maryland Fishery Resources Office is an active participant in fishery and aquatic resource management in the Chesapeake Bay and along the Atlantic Coast.  During Fiscal Year 2005, the office worked primarily with coastal management of the interjurisdictional populations of striped bass, Atlantic sturgeon, horseshoe crabs, and American eel.  The Maryland FRO also worked with the states of Maryland and Virginia to address the recent discovery of a reproducing population of non-native northern snakehead fish in the Potomac River.  Staff are also involved in assisting National Wildlife Refuges to manage their aquatic resources by conducting fish inventories, and participating in habitat restoration projects.