Arkansas Game & Fish Commission Fisheries Biologist

In Arkansas there are 42 Fisheries Division biologists
11 fisheries districts
And the Little Rock office.

Special projects, such as research and the trout program, employ four fisheries biologists.

The computer analyst is a biologist.

For organization purposes, the biologists are divided up by their general duties. No two biologists perform the same duties, and no one biologist has done it all.

Arkansas Statewide Fisheries Management

This responsibility belongs to the 11 district fisheries biologists and assistant biologists.

Each district has a biologist and an assistant biologist.

All are supervised by the assistant chief of the Fisheries Management Section,
who answers to the Chief of Fisheries.
Both are biologists and work out of the Little Rock office.

District personnel must perform a wide range of duties.

Fish population sampling;
Construction and maintenance of access areas;
lake fertilization;
walleye and striped bass brood stock collection;
pollution investigations;
lake water level manipulation;
assisting wildlife officers;
private pond extension work;
commercial fishery monitoring;
fish habitat improvements;
collaborating with all levels of government;
public relations;
nursery pond construction;
maintenance of lakes and access areas;
verifying state and world record fish;
stocking;
management recommendations;
conducting creel surveys;
writing reports;
handling all other paperwork.

Fish population sampling is the major program dictating the activities of the management biologist.
Fisheries Division biologists developed the Standardized Sampling Procedures manual several years ago.
It provides them with a standardized procedural routine for conducting fisheries population samples.
The samples are conducted throughout the year and provide biologists with essential data needed to determine management practices .
If your fisheries biologist seems to be tired, it’s probably because he’s been up several nights in a row sampling fish or working the walleye or striper projects.
Much of spring electro sampling on lakes is conducted at night when fish group up in shallow depths just off the banks.

The walleye and striper projects require a special diligence from their participants. Both often go on for a week or more of sleepless, chilly nights on the banks of a lake. A warm fire, homemade treats from (hopefully) understanding wives and a bottomless coffee pot are required to fuel the all-night net-running activities. Despite the numbing effects of cold water and lack of sleep, the fish are carefully stripped of their eggs and milt, then gently released to spawn again next year. The eggs are then transported to one of the state fish hatcheries, where hatchery biologists raise them.