“I’ve been thinking about this project for a long time knowing that the dam was going to be removed and it seemed like perfect timing,” Dawson said. “I was hoping by doing this project it would get people excited about the Flint River. A lot of people still think the river is the problem when it was never the problem in terms of the water crisis.”
Dawson said the research project is expected to last two to three years depending on when the weir is replaced. She hopes to continue research even after the removal of the weir to see the change in the wildlife and environment.
“What we’ve gotten so far is that there are fish that spawn at different times and a lot of them try to move pass the dam and they can’t,” she said. “So, we’ve certainly caught lots of carp which some people forget (are) in the river, but we’ve also caught a dozen of other species. We have caught species that people often like to fish for and I think that is indicative of a healthy river.”
Dawson and her students also plan to fillet fish once a month to test the amount of metal in them like concentrations of mercury and lead which can help determine the health of the river....
Read it all here: https://www.mlive.com/news/2019/06/prof ... river.html
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