Service employee Michael Fodale instructs a WindWard Environmental consultant in the operation of the deepwater electrofisher, at the Portland Harbor Superfund site on the Willamette River, Portland Oregon. - Photo courtesy of Daniel Kochanski

Members of two consultant firms operate a redesigned pontoon boat with a deepwater electrofisher to capture larval Pacific lampreys, at a Superfund site in the Willamette River, Portland, Oregon. - Photo courtesy of Daniel Kochanski

Marquette Biological Station staff recently shared their expertise to train government contracted workers and conduct surveys to collect larval Pacific Lampreys, at the Portland Harbor Superfund site, a heavily industrialized stretch of the Willamette River in downtown Portland, Oregon. 

The Environmental Protection Agency is the lead agency for coordinating the in-water portion of the remedial investigation and is working closely with six Tribal governments and other natural resources trustees at the site. 

Environmental consultants conduct biological, chemical, and biochemical investigations on many ongoing projects along nine contaminated miles of the river.  Michael Fodale and Daniel Kochanski traveled to Oregon and partnered with these investigators in the use of the deepwater electrofisher, a device uniquely designed to collect larval lampreys at water depths ranging from 5 to 75 feet. 

The goal of the project was to collect specimens for contaminant analyses as a first step in the long process to determine the impacts of pollutants in this large tributary to the Columbia River.  Fodale and Kochanski successfully trained the consultants in the use of the equipment, shared sampling strategies, and collaborated in collecting lamprey tissues for the project.