Students reel in gar-gantuan catch during Mississippi River fieldwork

In early November, during National Gar Week, students from the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology (FWCB) in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences had quite the story to share. Their recent trip to the Mississippi River was filled with long days in the field, muddy riverbanks and an unforgettable encounter with one of North America’s most ancient and fascinating fish—the alligator gar.

A hands-on research adventure and a moment of awe

Graduate student Luxia Feyereisen, incoming MS student Gabrielle Gonzales, and FWCB alum Jenna Pearson joined Assistant Professor Solomon David and research partners for fieldwork along the Mississippi River floodplain in Mississippi. The trip was part of an ongoing research collaboration with The Nature Conservancy, funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, focusing on using gars as indicators of ecosystem health and restoration success.

For Gonzales, it was an experience she’ll never forget. She says that when she first learned she would be joining the trip she felt a little intimidated, since most adult alligator gars are longer than she is tall. Still, she was excited to find out what the experience would be like. Once the team pulled in their first gar, her excitement turned into pure awe. “It was surreal to be handling such a huge, beautiful fish,” she says. “I don’t think I’d ever interacted with such a large wild animal in its habitat before.”

Teamwork in action

Feyereisen, who documented much of the trip with a GoPro® camera, says she was so excited that she couldn’t help but shriek when she first saw the massive gar. “The size and charisma of these fish are just spectacular,” she says. She adds that what made the day unforgettable was the teamwork: the shared effort of setting the nets, handling the fish and gathering data out on the water.

The fieldwork itself was no small task. Each day began around 5:30 a.m. and involved hours of setting and checking large gill nets to capture the massive fish. The crew collected fin clips for stable isotope analysis, inserted trackable tags for future monitoring and extracted otoliths from smaller gar species, which are ear stones that help determine a fish’s age. Every task contributed to larger research efforts to understand and conserve the Mississippi River ecosystem.

Feyereisen says that although the days were long and demanding, they ended on a high note. After finishing work for the day, the team would regroup at a local restaurant to celebrate a successful day of research and share their favorite moments.

Lessons beyond the classroom

The students agree that the trip taught them lessons beyond what they learned in the classroom. Gonzales says the fieldwork was incredibly hands-on and that it allowed her to experience a dynamic environment and handle valuable animals in real time. 

Feyereisen adds that the experience also gave her a new perspective on conservation. “Conservation isn’t just fieldwork,” she says. “It’s about connecting what we do in the field to real-world policy and management. ”

Conserving a living river

David, who shared video from the trip during the National Gar Week, says that this fieldwork is part of his lab’s ongoing efforts to better understand and conserve Mississippi River ecosystems from Minnesota all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. The research team safely released all large alligator gars after tagging and sampling them, including one that measured nearly eight feet long and weighed approximately 300 pounds. 

Gonzales says the trip gave her a whole new appreciation for the Mississippi River. “It was humbling to see the river in such a different light,” she says. “Though it’s the same river that flows through the Twin Cities, the landscape and ecosystem are completely different.”

For both students, the fieldwork was a reminder of why they chose to study fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology in the first place: curiosity, conservation and a deep respect for the incredible creatures that live beneath the surface.