Fishing the Divide: Water and Industry – Field Work Along the Little Calumet River

My photo captures Daniel Arad fishing under the Major Taylor Trail Bridge in Whistler Woods Forest Preserve on the Little Calumet River to collect specimens of Micropterus salmoides (Largemouth Bass). My research project investigates the concentration of heavy metals in fish tissue from the Calumet region over time. The Calumet region encompasses the southern tip of Lake Michigan, spanning southeast Chicago and northwest Indiana, and is marked by a biodiverse marsh ecosystem alongside extensive industrial development since the 1870s. Tissue samples from museum specimens (1910s–2010s) and contemporary fieldwork specimens from the Calumet watershed will be analyzed with an ICP-MS spectrometer to measure element concentration. Additionally, I am digitizing historic USGS and Sanborn maps and incorporating Landsat satellite data to track shifts in hydrology and industrial land ownership over time. By quantifying the increased presence of industry over time and the temporality of biomagnification of metals in fish tissue, I hope to identify a correlation between polluting industries and impacts on aquatic ecosystems, as water quality was largely undocumented before the late 20th century.