SUNY Potsdam undergrad honored for fish study

POTSDAM — SUNY Potsdam recognized students with a new set of awards Thursday for undergraduate research projects that focus on the north country.

The Ram L. Chugh North Country Research and Public Service Award was recently established to reward students for studies that shed light on regional issues. Mr. Chugh, a professor emeritus of economics at the college, endowed the award with his wife, Seema K.

"In my 30 years at SUNY Potsdam, I became aware that the north country can benefit a great deal from the services we offer through the colleges. We have the expertise. We know the problems and the issues," said Mr. Chugh, who also founded the Merwin Rural Services Institute. "This award will help maintain those connections between the college and the community."

Lisbon native Jason J. Gokey was the first Chugh Award recipient. The senior biology and chemistry major spent the past two summers fishing in the St. Lawrence River for his study of whether the catch and release method actually harms or kills some species.

Mr. Gokey found that of the 211 fish he caught, the species that came from deeper waters experienced more barotrauma — or health problems related to the changing pressure between the river surface and underwater.

Smallmouth bass, walleye and perch were the most affected, with 68 percent of those fish showing signs of barotrauma later dying. Mr. Gokey also found a threshold, where all of the fish caught below 68 feet deep later died after being released.

"The difficult part was finding deeper water where the current wasn't too fast. A lot of places where the water was deep enough, my anchor, which is two cinder blocks, was dragging behind the boat," he said. "I'm going to Upstate Medical Center next year for biomedical research, but my ultimate goal is to come home to the north country."

Award nominee Margaret E. Zee, a senior geology major, also studied a north country body of water for her project. She tested Black Lake and eight tributaries leading to it for phosphates this fall and compared her finding with 19 years of data in an effort to determine what causes the blooms of Eurasian milfoil in the lake each summer.

"That was an interesting project, because that real-life research shows it's probably not coming from the tributaries. So maybe it's coming from the shores of the lake. There may be problems with runoff," said St. Lawrence County Administrator Karen M. St. Hilaire, who was a judge for the Chugh award.

Senior archaeological studies majors Jessica N. Crandall and Kalen M. Casey sifted through records from the former St. Lawrence County Almshouse for their project. They examined census and burial records from 1850 to 1910 to look for trends, one of which was that more women of childbearing age died at that time.

"The more that we can get students to learn about our communities, to make a connection and — just perhaps — to understand and care about the issues that impact us here, the more likely they will be to stay and embrace this place as their home after graduation," said James A. Murphy, Potsdam's economic developer, who was also a judge. "We want you here because we're going to need you here."