Use of Boat-Mounted Electrofishing Gear by Fishery Biologists in the United States

Abstract A 1976 mail survey of fishery biologists in the continental United States indicated that boat-mounted electrofishing gear was used on lakes rather than streams by most (71%) of the 231 respondents, and for management rather than research by 54%. Alternating current was used by 62%, and about two-thirds had at least one device for modifying electrical current output (e.g., variable voltage pulsator). Pulsed direct current was used more often in research than in management, in streams than in lakes, and in the West than in other regions of the country.