Bishopville Prong “Where did all the Fish Go?
Stage 1 – Desired Results
Content Standard(s):
5th Grade: 6.B.2.b
7th Grade: 6.A.1. a, 6.B.1.b
6th Grade: 6.A.1.c, 6.B.1.c
8th Grade: 6.B.1.a, 6.B.1.b
Understanding (s)/goals
Essential Question(s):
Human use of resources have
Example:
negative and positive effects on local
How are human choices
and global ecosystems.
impacting freshwater
ecosystems?
Student objectives (outcomes):
Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence
Performance Task(s):
Other Evidence:
Stage 3 – Learning Plan
Learning Activities:
Engage: Narrative
Explore: Video
Procedure:
Debrief: See questions
Explain: Bishopville Prong Background Information and maps.
Evaluate:
Exit ticket:
Opening Narrative: Alt. High school scenario available below.
Where did all the Fish Go?
Jim and Lisa Taylor’s Grandpa rarely came home to the Eastern Shore of
Maryland. When he does, they always go fishing. On this visit Grandpa
Taylor wanted to take the kids to his hometown of Bishopville. There was a
great spot where he fished as a young boy. He drove over the bridge into
Bishopville and parked outside the old Rita’s Bakery shop.
Jim and Lisa helped Grandpa Taylor unpack the fishing poles and bait and
headed back towards the bridge.
Grandpa Taylor scratched his head and said, “This area just don’t look the
same. The water is cloudy. I used to be able to see all the way to the
bottom.”
The found a spot on the side of the bridge and cast their lines. They must
have tried for at least half an hour. Nothing took their bait.
Grandpa looked perplexed, “I always caught fish here. In fact, they almost
jumped into our arms. If we didn’t catch fish we sure did catch eels. What
happened to the fish? What happened to the eels?”
Alt. Narrative
A Fish Kill in Bishopville Prong
A hot summer day can bring back memories. The quiet of still air raises thoughts of other
days, and stories of summers long past. They say this summer is going to be hot, and that
makes a lot of people worry.
If you ask anyone in who remembers a few years back, they’ll tell you what happened.
There were a lot of fish that died suddenly. That much everyone agrees with. What is less
clear is why it happened. Some will say it was the hot weather that year. “The heat of
mid-summer killed the fish,” some said. “It was something in the water—some sort of
pollution,” others said. “The water in that pond is stagnant,” others offered. Still others
said that it was the dam itself on the Bishopville Prong that had caused the fish to die.
What everyone agreed to, though, was that a lot of fish had died and floated to the top of
the pond made by the dam at Bishopville. It was an unpleasant sight, and an even more
unpleasant smell. For anyone who liked to go fishing there, it was the end of a season that
had not yet begun.
The different reasons given were confusing. And they were worrisome. Could they all be
true? Was one of the reasons right? Was it something else entirely? How could someone
tell what had happened? How could someone find out, so something could be done to
keep it from happening again.
Bishopville Prong Background
Bishopville Prong, a tidal tributary to the St. Martin River, in
Bishopville Maryland, (see map) drains a watershed area of
approximately 10,817 acres. The Bishopville Prong watershed land use
consists of mixed agriculture (5,144 acres, 48%), forest and other
herbaceous cover (3,774 acres, 35 %), urban (1,899 acres, 18 %).
There are two major point source discharges of nutrients in the
St. Martin River waters, the Ocean Pines Service Area Wastewater
Treatment Plant (WWTP), and Perdue Farms Inc. in Showell. In 1998,
these sources were contributing about 36,566 lb/yr of nitrogen and
2,313 lb/yr of phosphorus to the St. Martin River and eventually to the
Isle of Wight Bay.
Source:
http://www.epa.gov/reg3wapd/tmdl/MD_TMDLs/NorthernCoastalBays/NC
B_main_final.pdf
American Eel Connection
When it comes to adaptability, few species can
top the American eel. They turn up in more
habitats than any other fish. After spawning in
the open ocean, they can be found in coastal estuaries, rivers, trout
streams, farm ponds—even wet caves. Eels spawn in the Sargasso Sea,
and then die after mating once. Their larvae are carried by currents to
the coast, where they migrate toward land, living most of their lives in
freshwater streams. Those migrating far upstream tend to be
exclusively female, and may remain in headwater areas for up to 30
years before returning to the Sargasso to spawn—filled with huge
numbers of eggs.
American eel populations have dropped so sharply that leading eel
scientists issued a “declaration of concern” about American eels, as well
as European and Japanese eels, which are also in decline. The USF&WS
is reviewing a petition that the American eel be considered for
protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. Contributing
factors to the decline may include overfishing, loss of habitat, the
introduction of an exotic parasite that infects the eels, and possibly
even changes in the ocean currents that distribute eel larvae along the
coast. Some of those factors—such as changes in currents—are beyond
human control.
Historically, eels were so abundant that they constituted more
than 25 percent of fish biomass in freshwater streams. But the
construction of dams and other fish blockages have restricted much of
that habitat over the last century. Eels can wriggle out of the water
and onto damp grass or wet rocks to bypass some obstructions.
Source: http://www.bayjournal.com/newsite/article.cfm?article=2529
Project Summary
The Bishopville Dam modification and stream restoration project is
a cooperative effort among the Maryland Coastal Bays Program,
Maryland Department of Natural Resources, US Army Corps of
Engineers to modify the dam at Bishopville to allow for fish passage,
landscape the area using native vegetation, restore the stream and
streamside vegetation and restore seepage wetlands at a nearby
reclaimed sand/gravel mine. Dam modification will consist of retaining a
portion of the current pond, maintaining water level at current pool
elevation and constructing a series of grade control pools to allow fish to
pass up the creek which will open about seven miles of stream habitat
for fishes. Also, a nearby 30 acre abandoned sand/gravel mine, will be
restored to forested wetland with plantings of cypress and white cedar,
once a common species in the area, but now virtually absent from the
coastal bays. In addition to opening the stream to fish passage, the
project is designed to restore over 1,000 feet of coastal plain stream
and approximately 12 acres of marsh and forest in the floodplain.
Water quality benefits will result from habitat improvement through
increased wetland area and improved function of the floodplain.
Source: http://www.mdcoastalbays.org/archive/2007/dam-waterqualityfish-monitoring-plan3.pdf