Recovering Rare Fishes: An Update on Success in the Southeastern United States

Peggy W. Shute
Tennessee Valley Authority, Regional Natural Heritage Project, 17 Ridgeway Road, Norris, TN 37828 828-632-1661, pwshute@tva.gov

Efforts to recover rare southeastern fishes by translocation and reintroduction are increasingly successful. Translocated snail darter population are becoming more robust and the species is apparently invading additional streams. Abrams Creek, in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park now contains reintroduced populations of four federally listed fishes on the verge of becoming established, and self-sustaining. Techniques to propagate mussels have also been refined in the past few years. These successes have led to a several recent proposals to attempt re-establishment of extirpated fish and mussel populations in the Tennessee River system in Alabama and Tennessee. Several species of several federally listed fishes are being captively produced for use in refining water quality standards. Theses tests document the sensitivity of some species, and might provide evidence to explain extirpation of historical populations. These data might also be useful in prioritization of candidate stream reaches for reintroductions. Watershed-level projects, which were relatively new in 1996, are now prevalent throughout the Southeast. Activities to reduce non-point source pollution are priorities to most of these associations. More coordination between agencies and groups attempting these projects is needed. Although environmental education is part of public education, the plight of southeastern aquatic animals is still largely unknown. It is especially important to target politicians, land managers, and developers.