THE WORLD OF BIO 105: Cooper River

VIRTUAL/PERSONAL FIELD TRIP LAB---A RIVER OR STREAM NEAR YOU

COOPER RIVER

I choose the Cooper River, it's a place I went to while I was visiting my sister and just fell in love with it. Every time we drove passed it and couldn't stop staring at it, I thing seeing all the boats and seeing the road move up for passing boats was just amazing to me. The two pictures below are of me actually being there I took so much more but way to many to post on here.

Located in: South Carolina

2,001.2mi from Arizona

Native Fish:

Striped Bass (Morone Saxatilis)

Redbreast Sunfish (Lepomis Auritus)

Gizzard Shad (Dorosoma Cepedianum)

Nonnative:

Flathead Catfish (Pylodictis Olivaris)

Blue Catfish (Ictalurus Furcatus)

Spotted Bass (Micropterus Punctulatus)

Managing Agency:

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources

Mission:

Life’s Better Outdoors

Why are native fish important?

Native fish are important because many native species populations are declining due to degraded habitat and the spread of aquatic nuisance species. Some of these species decline and never recover and become extinct without help.Without the native fish the habitat can change and they wont be able to put more in because they will all die.

No endangered fish:

As of right now there is no endangered fish, but if people don't stop putting fish in the river that shouldn't be in there then it might happen. people don't understand that them do this can ruin the river the is truly a beautiful thing to see.

Compare: Verde vs. Cooper

The only thing that’s the same about the Verde and Cooper is that there used for boating and fishing more than anything else. When going to the Cooper River and seeing the amazing different kind of boats that’s what made me just loved it there. I could have sat there forever but thankfully where I was staying at we drove by it every time we went out. The Verde River is way bigger than the Cooper, Verde is 170miles when the Cooper is just 22miles but its littleness sure makes up for it in prettiness.

With Cooper River changing each hour of the day the wildlife and vegetation patterns changes to when saltwater and freshwater gets moved in and out of the Charleston Harbor. The Verde doesn’t change so the wildlife and vegetation stay the same. I have been to both of these rivers and I find that the Cooper River is by far the prettiest thing I have ever seen. The one thing that makes these two rivers keep going is the people because all these rivers are used mainly for is boating and fishing.

Learned:

One of the things that really interested me was finding out what different kind of fish was in the Cooper River, just sitting there and driving by you don’t really know those kind of things so it was nice to learn about them.

The other thing that I learned was that the river in South Carolina is four different ones, I thought it was all one but doing some research I found out that the one we always drove by was Cooper River. There is Ashley, Wando, Stono, and Cooper River. These four rivers all connect in the Charleston Harbor. It’s something I would really like to see one of these days.

Questions:

When reading about many fish get brought to Cooper River by boats and other ways, how do they get rid of these fish that shouldn't be here and how can they get it to stop. I know that can’t get all these fish out of the river.

When reading about the mercury these fish are getting in their systems I would like to know how they get mercury in their system. Are they from the boats that travel through the area or what? It’s somewhat great that they have it so that people aren't killing them and their not becoming endangered.

Must see:

When I went there we did a little shopping, then ate and walked around, I saw the most beautiful thing there and it was a pineapple fountain. It’s like a mini water area for kids that I just loved and if you ever go there you must see it.