Roundtable Discussion - February 10, 2005 Virginia Beach, Virginia
Chris Thomason - South Carolina Dept. of Natural Resources (SCDNR) - We have many blackwater and some brownwater rivers in the low country of the state. We have a project to relate floodplain inundation (frequency and duration) to centrarcid populations. Recently we have had a drought followed by a 9 month flood and this has resulted in the best fishing in 20 years. Trying to lift a moratorium (1991 in SC, 1988 in GA) on striped bass harvest in the Savannah River. Fish have been stocked and populations have rebuilt to levels prior to tidegate construction. We have uniform regulations with Georgia. Population levels is not yet high enough to meet goal. Regulation will be 2 fish/day with a 27 inch minimum.
Should SC have a statewide stream team or use district biologists? Staff vacancies abound. Hired a nongame fish biologist and a mussel biologist who will also work with crayfish.
Chad Thomas - North Carolina Wildlife Resources Agency (NCWRA) - Stocking OTC marked American shad migrating through 3 dams and down to Albemarle Sound. Juvenile recovery efforts continued in Roanoke River. Completed Fishery Management Plan for striped bass with state marine agency for all coastal rivers. IBI program in nonwadeable streams. In 2004, micro tagged and stocked 70,000 largemouth bass at 2", 5" and 8" in 2 rivers. Sampling 56km in spring and fall to determine fish survival and if stocked fish are enhancing local bass populations. Stocked fish moved into brackish sounds to avoid low dissolved oxygen and anoxic events.
Frank Fiss - Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) - Still doing annual sampling of smallmouth bass rivers on wadeable streams. Reorganizing aquatic database system, converting everything to electronic files. Smallmouth bass management plan is on the TWRA website. This year they will do a watershed habitat plan for the Duck River using 5S planning process developed by the Nature Conservancy with SWG funding.
John Copeland - Virginia Dept. of Game & Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) - Scott Smith developed a flow recruitment model for smallmouth bass. Best year classes were produced with intermediate flows in June. The Smallmouth Bass Team is working publications. Significant harvest of smallmouth bass in the 14"-20" range - 50% annual mortality. Virginia Tech is doing genetic testing of river populations of smallmouth bass.
FERC relicensing to start on New River below Clayton Dam.
The Nature Conservancy has a Freshwater Initiative Office in Charlottesville, VA.
Bob Greenlee is studying the impacts of blue catfish on native fish in rivers.
David Sager - Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. (TPWD) - Working with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for a sampling methods manual for biological samples with IBI’s and quality controls for permit applicants.
Wichita River Chloride Control Project ---- Corps decided to continue with project and feel they have sufficiently addressed comments received from Oklahoma and Texas. Project awaits federal funding. Wichita Falls , TX got a permit to construct a water treatment plant and discharge salty water. Instream flow – legislature mandated that 3 agencies work cooperatively on flow issues and develop instream flow methods. Draft procedures document developed and the National Academy of Sciences reviewed it. We are studying those review comments and recommendations. Their report is on our website and will be published in 2 months.
Toxic Algae Blooms — reservoirs are having blooms but none in rivers this year. 1.2 million appropriated from legislature to research the algae. Chelated Copper or Ammonia used to treat the algae in our fish hatchery system. See www.tpwd.state.tx.us and click on “harmful algae bloom”.
Ed Scott, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) - Routinely monitors streams with IBI’s and benthic invertebrates — 611 Habitat Units on a 5 year basis. Provide this information to the state DEQ’s for 10-15 years. Lake Sturgeon restoration project – Broodstock from Wisconsin, Ed went there to watch the egg collection. Tennessee got eggs from 5 fish and milt from 25 fish. Got 20,000 eggs. Stocked 25,000 fish over the last 5 years. Once stocked they are hard to locate. Anglers have caught fish over 200 miles away (passage thru 3 dams) on TN river. Radio-tracking study at Univ. of TN. 19 of 20 fish still located and they stay in deep pools in the French Broad River. This spring we will try to set trammel nets in these pools.
Snail darters – resurvey underway, still listed as threatened. Hopefully, it can be removed from that list.
National Park Service has contracted with the TVA to perform fish surveys along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Big South Fork River. The fish populations have recovered since the 1970's due to improved water quality.
Working with Conservation Fisheries Inc. on a project.
Jeff Quinn - Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) - Jeff works mostly on large rivers (Red, White, & Arkansas) but does some work on smaller streams — with smallmouth bass. Did a major paddlefish research study. Need a CITES permit to export paddlefish. Working to analyze 30 years of rotenone data at 4 sites on Arkansas River. 37% of residents fish in large rivers; 9% fish in smaller rivers. Mitigation– dike notching, only 4 studies done none published in peer-review journals. Doing more gravel surveys in large rivers. Concerned about head cutting on the White River upstream from the Miss. River. Summarized all electrofishing data on small streams since 1984 with the intent to provide a management goal for district fisheries biologists. Active Stream Team program. Working on the State Wildlife Grant plan. Yellow cheek darter survey is planned.
Dennis Riecke - Mississippi Dept. of Wildlife, Fisheries & Parks (MDWFP) - Working to form a stream mitigation bank for the agency. Scenic Streams program is expanding slowly. Study at Miss. State Univ. on stock assessment and spawning habitat for paddlefish in Noxubee River.
Dr. Hal Schramm - Miss. Coop. Fish & Wildlife Research Unit (USGS) Studied capture methods for black carp and survey of waters near aquaculture facilities permitted to have black carp to determine if fish have escaped into the wild. Did not capture Black Carp or Silver Carp but got Bighead and Grass Carp. AC electrofishing captures Black Carp in small ponds. DC does not affect them. AC electrofishing was a more effective gear than trap nets. Low frequency pulsed DC captures silver carp. Beginning to sample deep water pools for Asian carp.
Did a study on the Gulf Coast Strain walleye. It is probably extinct as no fish were captured in the wild in the last 2 years. Tributaries were regarded as spawning sites but impoundment of midwater stream habitat affected the species.
Has a paper in the water quality section on the effects of impoundment on low gradient streams.
Adjourned at 3:30 p.m.