Petitcodiac River Causeway- Environmental Impact Assessment Summary of Beach Seining Program

Introduction: Beach seining in the Petitcodiac River estuary was conducted to determine the species of the near-shore fish community. The beach seining effort will be repeated two times, once in August, and another time in the autumn.

The beach seining was conducted using a net 18m long x 1.2m deep. The mesh was 6 mm diameter “Delta” pattern. Seine nets have a lead line on the bottom (a weighted line) and a float line on the top. The netting areas that were sampled during the program described in this report varied somewhat because of the bottom roughness, the topography of the sites, and the tidal conditions. Success was also related to the wind and wave conditions at each site.

Beach seining involves filtering (seining) fish from a shallow water area adjacent to the shore. The seining took place at 8 locations in the Petitcodiac estuary. The sites locations were:

• Site #1 – Waterside beach, Waterside, NB
• Site #2 – Bucks Flats (6km south of Dorchester Cape, NB)
• Site #3 – Dorchester Cape, NB (at the old wharf)
• Site #4 – Beaumont, NB (below the church)
• Site #5 – Belliveau Village, NB (down river side of the wharf)
• Site #6 – Dover, NB (6km south of where the hydro lines cross Route 925)
• Site #7 – Riverview, NB (Hawkes Road)
• Site #8 – Cape Enrage, NB (Cape Enrage beach).

During the program described in this report, the following methodology was typically employed:

“Technician One” stayed on the water’s edge while “Technician Two” walked into the water roughly perpendicular to the shore to a depth of approximately 1 m, and played the net out behind him. For safety reasons, Technician Two wore a life jacket at all times. To keep the lead line on the bottom, one end of the line was tied to one of Technician Two’s boots. Technician Two then walked parallel to the shore for a distance pulling the seine through the water. He then circled back onto the shore at a point approximately 50 m from where he entered the water. The area sampled approximated a “D” shape. In the mean time, Technician One also dragged his end of the seine along the water’s edge to Technician One’s exit point from the water. They then pulled in the net taking care to keep the lead line on the bottom. The fish and invertebrates that were too large to exit through the mesh were captured alive.

• The round of seining described in this report took place over 7 days from July 14, 2003 to July 22, 2003. From past experience, it was known that to successfully capture fish, seining should be conducted on the rising tide. Andrew McIntyre of AMEC was present for all of the seining and was accompanied each day by one other AMEC technical employee. Jason Flanagan of DFO participated on July 14, 2003, and Julie Theriault, DSS summer student participated on July 21, 2003.

The vast majority of the fish that were captured were released alive, with the exception of a few that were kept for later examination and weighing.

Results: The following tables provide a summary of the results of the beach seining efforts.

Site #1, Waterside beach, Waterside, NB
July 17, 2003
Water Temperature ~ 25.5`C

Site #2, Bucks Flats
July 16, 2003
Water Temperature ~ 25`C

Site #3, Dorchester Cape, NB
July 15, 2003
Water Temperature ~ 20`C

Site #4, Beaumont
July 21, 2003
Water Temperature ~ 22`C

Site #5, Belliveau Village
July 14, 2003
Water Temperature ~ 23`C

Site #6, Dover, NB
July 22, 2003
Water Temperature ~ 23`C

Site #7, Riverview
July 18, 2003
Water Temperature ~ 26`C

Site #8, Cape Enrage
July 17, 2003
Water Temperature ~ 25`C