From Estuary News:
By Peter Moyle
I started sampling the fishes of Suisun Marsh in 1979 because one of my UC Davis graduate students was looking for a place to study tule perch, a live-bearing native fish. We found not only a lot of tule perch in the marsh, but also an abundance of other native fishes. Clearly, this was a good place to study species for which we had little information at that time. Two things helped with our new project.
First, sampling boats could be launched less than an hour’s drive from campus. Second, the California Department of Water Resources needed a study to examine effects of new tidal gates on fish. The gates are designed to retain fresher water in the marsh to benefit waterfowl, for hunting. They also keep marsh channels brackish, favoring estuarine fishes such as striped bass and splittail.
Now, 42 years later, Suisun Marsh is still the subject of a monthly sampling program.
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