Tidewater Goby Surveying Day 4

Today, my capstone group members, and our mentor, Dr. Brenton Spies once again got the opportunity to survey sites for northern tidewater goby (Eucyclogobius newberryi) presence/absence, population numbers, microporidia presence, and more. Today was our second foray into Santa Barbara County, but we surveyed sites into Ventura County as well. We got to a total of 5 sites, bringing our total sites surveyed up to 22 different sites! This is very exciting and should yield us a great amount of data to work with on our respective capstone projects, as well as yielding valuable data for the study of these enigmatic fish. We found gobies at the majority of the sites we surveyed, which is a great sign for this endangered species. We also encountered several different native fish species today such as the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), arrow goby (Cleavlandia ios), longjaw mudsucker (Gillichthys mirabilis), and the pacific staghorn sculpin (Leptocottus armatus). We also came into contact with a Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla) (pictured below) while surveying one of our sites. It was a fantastic day surveying with a large amount of other species that we got to see along with the northern tidewater gobies. I am so grateful for the amount of work I have gotten to do with these incredible animals, and am looking forward to doing more.

Holding a Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla) while surveying a site in Santa Barbara County for northern tidewater gobies (Eucyclogobius newberryi)