On Saturday April 12, 2025 about 20 middle-school aged student and their parents were given a demonstration of how fish assessment occurs. Florida Fish and Wildlife staff brought their boat and electrofished for about 20 minutes. The stunned fish were transported to a tank onshore where Josh Riley (FFWC) showed the students how to identify, weigh and measure the fish. Then Eddie Perri (USFWS) showed us how to use a key to identify invertebrates. After lunch we heard from three experts (Mike Danaher USFWS, Eddie Perri (USFWS) and Mike Elfenbein (Cypress IWLA) about their professional journey. Scroll down to see more.
Mike Elfenbein taking one of his famous selfies with Division of Freshwater Fisheries agents FFWC and FWS staff who lead the day’s assessment.
Captain Courtney Stachowiak, Biologist Scientist III Division of Freshwater Fisheries of the FFWC backing the electrofishing boat into Pistol Pond.
Part of our group watching Captain Courtney bring the electrofish boat around after the tank had been pumped full of water.
John Cimbaro, showing the group the different fish species in Florida as the electrofishing crew motors out to collect fish to sample
Mark Danaher (USFWS) showing a blue gill in the fish photo cage. His excitement was contaigous.
Josh Wiley showing a couple fish electrofished from Pistol Pond
An important objective of the Pistol Pond Project is to show youth what is needed to be a good conservationist and the different professions involved.
For this, we heard from three of the day’s experts.
Mark Danaher told us about his journey directly from a youth interested in Wildlife to his current position as Certified Wildlife Biologist and Supervisory Wildlife Biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southwest Florida Refuges.
Eddie Perri told us about his journey from youth, to aquaculturist, public aquarium construction to becoming a Fish Biologist for the USFWS in the Peninsular Florida Fisheries Office (FWCO) . His self-described dream job!
Mike Elfenbein described how his motivation to help empower people to become conservationists requires people to experience what needs to be conserved so they could appreciate its value. He explained how this reality lead to this project, now over 15 years in the making, to make Pistol Pond a vibrant and accessible recreational fishing area. The ultimate goal for this project, and most of his work as Executive Director of the Cypress Chapter of the Izaak Walton League is to help all people understand what it takes to conserve and manage our public lands properly.
