Members of the Brother Martin Behavioral Ecology and Environmental Science Research Team, with spectators Mr. Devlin, Mr.Rando, and Mr. Fleetwood in the crowd, conducted an ongoing experiment to address the physiological stresses experienced by native fish species in the Lake Pontchartrain and Barataria Basins both during and after a hurricane type event. The group focused on the effects of salinity increases and decreases in the basins as well as the ecological effects due to fluctuations in salinity. Currently they are focusing their studies on juvenile Large Mouth bass Micropterus salmoides.
Due to storm surges from a hurricane event, salt water moves into the freshwater areas of the Barataria and Lake Pontchartrain Basins. Recreating hurricane and post-hurricane salinity conditions will allow for the analysis of the effects of salinity changes on juvenile Large Mouth bass. One component of this project is to artificially recreate the salinity levels experienced during Hurricane Issac and analyse the ability of the bass to adapt to these adverse conditions. Consequently, the identification of the lethal salinity concentration for juvenile Large Mouth bass is both necessary and paramount to the study. Preliminary result show that juvenile Large Mouth bass cannot withstand the salinity levels experienced as a result of the storm surge from hurricane Issac.
