Roundtable Discussion - February 9, 2006 San Antonio, Texas
Warmwater Streams Committee
Southern Division, American Fisheries Society
Roundtable Discussion – February 9, 2006
San Antonio, Texas
Dan Catchings - Alabama Dept. of Conservation & Natural Resources (ADCNR) – Recently completed FERC relicensing process with Alabama Power for 7 projects on the Coosa and Warrior Rivers. Accomplishments included agreement to restore partial flow to a 20- mile stretch of the Coosa River at Lake Weiss. This river reach currently only receives water during overflow events from the reservoir. Staff currently collecting baseline data on the fauna of the channel, with subsequent surveys planned once flow is restored.
ADCNR staff are directing more effort towards the assessment of the fisheries in warmwater streams using IBI techniques. The Alabama DEQ does some of this work, but most of their projects focus only on degraded streams and usually involve invertebrates instead of fish. The goal of the ADCNR is to collect information on a broader cross section of streams that will be comparable to and interchangeable with data collected by other agencies.
Dr. Elise Irwin of Auburn University is working on an adaptive management plan involving flows in the Talapoosa River below Harris Reservoir. Historically, flows below the lake have been minimal. This project will evaluate the effects of pulsing flows designed to keep water in the river moving during periods when power is not being generated. Researchers will survey the fish fauna of the river using seines and several types of electrofishing gear to determine the effects of these pulsing flows on the fish community.
Historically strong shoal bass populations in several eastern Alabama drainages seem to be declining for unknown reasons. Research on the Chattahoochee River suggests that populations are declining more than what the amount of habitat loss would seem to suggest. A drought in 2000 could be related to the current declines. In many of the streams where shoal bass have declined, largemouth and spotted bass are increasing. In the coming season, spots and largemouth may be removed and shoal bass may be reintroduced. Additionally, shoal bass harvest will be prohibited to help their recovery.
ADCNR is implementing a “Restoration and Conservation Plan for the Southern Strain Walleye in Alabama” under the direction of Steve Rider. Survey work indicates that the numbers of Southern Walleye in Alabama streams may be critically low. The goal of this plan is to restore, conserve, and enhance Southern Walleye populations in Alabama for the benefit of genetically unique populations and increased angling opportunities.
Ed Scott – Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) – TVA is conducting a study to evaluate the effects of new turbines recently installed at Douglas Dam on downstream populations of the federally threatened snail darter. Snail darters thrived in the river when the original turbines were in use, but it was not known how they would be affected once the newer, more efficient turbines were installed two years ago. Thus far, the darters do not seem to have been adversely affected, with 3-4 age classes being found during recent surveys. Concurrently, the USFWS & Tennessee Tech are evaluating snail darters at all the known occurrences and their findings could lead to delisting snail darters from the endangered species list.
TVA also recently completed a study to evaluate the effects of a modified reservoir operations scheme that affects 39 dams. Under the new scheme, higher summer pool elevations would be maintained a month longer in the summer (until Labor Day) than previously. As before, reservoirs would be aggressively filled in the spring and held at high levels during the summer recreation period, while continuing to provide minimum flows and maintain dissolved oxygen levels in tailraces. This management scenario has the potential to impact water temperatures, water levels, and wetlands downstream of reservoirs. TVA will be working with FWS biologists to monitor potential changes in aquatic communities in river segments below the dams to address concerns raised by FWS.
Efforts are ongoing to reintroduce lake sturgeon in the lower French Broad and upper Tennessee Rivers following recent improvements in water quality. A broad coalition of partners (USFWS, TWRA, WDNR, TVA, Tennessee Aquarium Research Institute, UT, TTU, World Wildlife Fund, Conservations Fisheries Inc., Tennessee Clean Water Network, and AmeriCorps) first released sturgeon in 2000. To date, 45,000 have been released and they appear to be growing and dispersing. There have been a number of fisherman reports, but there is concern that many fishermen do not report sturgeon catches or sightings. Stock assessments have yielded low numbers of fish and future surveys will incorporate a wider variety of collection methods. A late winter attempt to catch sturgeon on trot lines yielded primarily channel catfish, mudpuppies (!), and silver redhorse.
TVA staff are conducting fisheries surveys on National Park Service lands. Surveys have been conducted on Big South Fork (TN/KY), Obed Wild & Scenic River (TN), and the Blue Ridge Parkway (NC/VA). Surveys should be completed by summer 2006.
Kin Hodges – North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) – NCWRC staff are working on updating the agency website to include information on boating access points that are not operated by the NCWRC. Including this information has the potential to increase angler utilization of warmwater streams and rivers, as many access points on these waters are not agency owned.
A comprehensive assessment of smallmouth bass streams is planned for western North Carolina. The goal of this assessment is to catalog which streams contain fishable populations of smallmouth bass, gather baseline population data, evaluate current regulations, and to increase public awareness of these underutilized resources.
Scott Smith - Virginia Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) - A smallmouth bass genetics assessment was recently completed. The genetic makeup of fish from the upper Tennessee River drainage was different from fish in other drainages, which appeared to be of mixed origins. This suggests that fish from the upper Tennessee drainages are native, while fish in the other basins may not be. Future efforts will attempt to determine the origin of populations with mixed genotypes by comparing them against Ohio River and northern strains. The management implication of these findings is that fish from outside drainages should not be introduced into the upper Tennessee drainage, while genetic origin of stocked fish should not be an issue in the other drainages since they’re already mixed anyway.
Plans are underway to test the genetics (cooperatively with West Virginia Dept. Natural Resources) of smallmouth from the New River below Kanawha Falls. This will help determine if the fish in the upper New are native or introduced.
The snakehead population in the Potomac appears to be expanding rapidly. Over 400 snakeheads (including a 12-pound individual), composed of 9-10 age classes, have been collected. Most appear to be genetically similar, suggesting that they came from a common source. Ninety percent were collected within a three mile area, mostly in tributaries to the Potomac and not in the mainstem Potomac itself. Radio telemetry is also being used to track the movements of snakeheads throughout the tributaries in which they reside. Snakeheads do appear to be entering the Potomac, but only while they’re migrating to different tributaries. The tagged snakeheads are congregating around thick vegetation in the summer and boat docks in the winter.
Another fish kill occurred in the Shenandoah River drainage in 2005. This time the kill occurred on the South Fork and mainstem Shenandoah, whereas the 2004 event occurred on the North Fork Shenandoah. Adult centrarchids were the primary species affected, with the S. Fork losing 80% of its smallmouth bass and 90% of its redbreast sunfish. Smaller scale dieoffs occurred in spring 2006, but not at the level of the 2004 North Fork or the 2005 South Fork/mainstem events. High bacteria levels are suspected, with poultry farms being the suspected source. The kills occur from mid-April through mid-June, which seems to coincide with when chicken manure is spread across fields around the river. The Shenandoah River contains extremely high fish densities, which likely contributes to the severity of the dieoffs. The kills do not seem to affect yearlings, possibly because they are not suffering from spawning stress.
The model developed by VDGIF biologists relating flow to smallmouth bass recruitment (Smith et al., 2005, NAJFM 25:1112-1121) appears to be working well. It predicted that 29 young-of-year smallmouth bass would be collected per hour in the James river in fall of 2005, and 27/hour were actually collected.
Scott would also like to know if any other biologists have experience working with the USACE on Section 216 projects.
Jeff Quinn – Arkansas Game & Fish Commission (AGFC) – Working on Little Missouri River 1135 project related to water temperatures. The original project was focused on smallmouth bass, but the results showed that temperatures were higher than expected and that the fish community was dominated by largemouth bass. A management plan is being developed that will assess the possibility of managing for lower water temperatures to favor smallmouth bass/trout.
The Town of Van Buren is attempting to put a dam on Lee Creek to provide a water supply. The Arkansas DEQ currently has regs to prevent the building of dams on high quality resource waters, but the town lobbied successfully to have the rules changed. The EPA may be able to overrule the decision and block the dam. As such, the outcome of this case could have nationwide implications for cases where exceptions have been granted to allow dam construction on high quality streams.
AGFC biologists recently worked on a USACE navigation channel dredging project on the Arkansas River. The navigation channel was to be increased in depth from 9 ft. to 12 ft., including backwater areas. Some of the concerns raised by AGFC were heeded while others were ignored.
AGFC biologists are involved with a MICRA paddlefish study in Beaver Lake. Paddlefish stocked into Beaver Lake were tagged with coded wire tags beginning nine years ago, while fish stocked previously were not tagged. Twenty fish were collected from Beaver Lake for age validation purposes. Staff were confident with fish of ages 1-9 whose ages could be validated by referencing the tag info, but assigning ages to fish older than nine proved more difficult.
The success of the special trophy regulations on Crooked Creek is going to be evaluated. Similar regs are being considered on the Caddo River.
Research is being conducted on the Arkansas River to evaluate populations of sauger and blue catfish. Female blue catfish do not appear to become gravid until reaching a length of ~520 mm, suggesting that current size limits are not sufficiently protecting spawners.
Lee Holt and I are conducting a stock assessment of sturgeon as part of a commercial fishing evaluation. Prices paid for domestic sturgeon have increased after the importation of beluga sturgeon was banned.
A statewide smallmouth bass genetics survey was initiated after Tennessee River strain smallmouth bass were stocked into Lake Ouchita. The genetics work is being done by the Auburn Coopertive Genetics Project.
There has been an ongoing legal dispute involving access to an oxbow lake on the lower Arkansas River. A hunting club that owns the land around the oxbow lake filled in the channel connecting it to the river to block public access, and a lawsuit was filed to restore public access to the oxbow. A state court ruled that there should be access since navigable waters are involved. However, a federal appeals court ruled that the oxbow did not constitute navigable waters due to how far it was located from the mainstem of the river. As such, the owners are not required to provide access. The USACE maintains that this is a site specific ruling that does not automatically apply statewide. Nonetheless, other landowners are now blocking access to their oxbows based on the outcome of this legal decision.
Dave Sager - Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) – Toxic golden algae has been killing fish, mussels, and possibly crayfish and gilled salamanders in five Texas river systems, including Lake Texoma. Two TPWD hatcheries were affected as well. Within the hatcheries, it has been controlled by applying copper algaecides and other treatments, which are not feasible in the wild for large waterbodies. The alga blooms in late fall/winter, previously appeared to have been mainly estuarine in distribution, and can photosynthesize as well as ingest other microorganisms.
TPWD staff are working with the state Water Quality agency on making IBI procedures uniform so data will be comparable between agencies. This includes developing regional IBIs for the state.
Watershed planning efforts are underway across the state. It is hoped that developing watershed plans will take care of problems otherwise requiring TMDLs to be developed for a watershed with agricultural (and other) non-point source impacts. Watershed protection measures are being developed for incorporating into wildlife management plans for ranchers upon request.
Instream flow work is being undertaken in cooperation with other state agencies. Methods are being assessed by the National Academy of Sciences.
Doyle Mosier - Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) – As part of the interagency Texas instream flow work, we are involved with initial efforts to assess hydrology, water quality, habitat characteristics, and fish communities within targeted rivers. GIS is being used to plot existing data and identify areas where data is lacking.
Texas has a hybrid water allocation system incorporating both eastern and western water rights methodologies. TPWD is focusing their water efforts on central and eastern Texas where there is still unallocated water left to work with.
Frank Fiss – Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) - TWRA staff are working on a large watershed planning effort to protect and improve aquatic habitat in the Duck and Buffalo River watersheds. This is a new approach for our agency as we partnered with the Nature Conservancy to develop the plan. In fact TNC had a lead role in developing the plan. The plan identifies the target resources, threats to resources, strategies to lessen or remove threats, and methods to measure the improvements. This partnership was the result of regional planning efforts instigated by the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership. The next phase it to determine the most effect ways to measure objectives and to start implementing “on the ground” strategies. In order to implement strategies, TWRA fisheries staff will need to work more closely with sister agencies, Ag Agencies, NRSC, local development agencies, local NGOs, and landowners. This is our agencies first step into watershed management. We are still figuring how to take the first steps.
Also, TWRA will be conducting creel surveys on two large rivers (Nolichucky & Pigeon) in East Tennessee during the 2006 season.