Columbia National Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office (NFWCO) is home to the MICRA National Paddlefish Stock Assessment Database.  The database, which was created in 1995 and houses paddlefish information from 22 states, is maintained by Columbia NFWCO staff year round.We also annually perform a comprehensive error check on the database.  When a data request came in this month, prior to the annual comprehensive check, we gladly shifted our effort away from other projects to fill the order.

Guided by Joanne Grady, Biran Elkington and Aaron Walker worked diligently through the month updating the database to be sent to one of our partners.  The work included extracting coded wire tags from paddlefish rostrums, decoding those tags, entering them into the database and proofing the data.  We then examined the database for anomalous occurrences, such as paddlefish body length shrinking after their release.  Such anomalies were rechecked for mistakes and, when needed, partners were contacted to sort out any remaining inconsistencies.  A series of QA/QC checks were also performed on the database to find any errors.  These errors were repaired and the checks were re-run until no errors were found. 

Once finished, the database was sent out to one of the many biologists working with MICRA.  Data requests like this occur when our partners have to produce results or reports for paddlefish in their specific region.  As database managers for the project, it is our role to ensure the data is available to them as well as provide data analysis on a basin wide scale.