Setting out a sampling net

USGS scientist Collin Smith, aboard USGS research vessel Dogfish, sets out a sampling net—called a lampara net—to capture nearshore fishes in a subtidal eelgrass bed in Eagle Harbor, Bainbridge Island, Washington. Lampara fishing in these deeper eelgrass beds, which are difficult to sample with other approaches, can show whether forage fishes like sand lance and surf smelt use eelgrass bed slightly offshore from the beach.