Nongame Freshwater Fish Conservation in the Southeast

Brian K. Wagner
Nongame Aquatics Biologist, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, 2 Natural Resources Drive, Little Rock, AR 72205; (501) 847-3611; (501) 847-1869 FAX; bkwagner@agfc.state.ar.us

The Southeast harbors one of the world's most diverse temperate aquatic faunas. Arkansas shares in this high biodiversity, but conservation efforts are limited. Arkansas is home to approximately 69 mussels, 215 fishes, and over 50 crayfishes. When Amendment 35 to the Arkansas Constitution created the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in 1944, there was no distinction between game and nongame species. The difficulty in the past has been that the source of funding for agency activities was the sale of hunting and fishing licenses. Our responsibility was much broader than this, but additional funds were needed. Amendment 75 created a 1/8th cent Conservation Sales Tax, to be divided among natural resource agencies. My charge is to implement a nongame program in the Commission's Fisheries Division. The program must integrate with current programs and organizational structure, coordinate partner organizations and agencies, increase awareness and appreciation of aquatic resources among citizens, and provide adequate protection for aquatic species. The nongame responsibilities are in the Management Divisions, rather than in a separate division. This emphasizes an ecosystem approach, where biologists are responsible for all aquatic resources in their district. The danger lies in the tradition of consumptive use focus. The goals for the program are an aquatic biodiversity database, increased knowledge of imperiled species, manage land for persistence of native aquatic fauna, increased appreciation of aquatic species, cooperation with other organizations, recovery of endangered species, identify imperiled species, sustainable commercial harvest, and an aquatic nuisance species response plan.