DLIA interns toured the facility of Conservation Fisheries, a Knoxville based non-profit “dedicated to the preservation of aquatic biodiversity.” The work of Conservation Fisheries focuses on the dozens of diminutive, and sometimes colorful, freshwater fish species found throughout rivers and streams of the southeast.
These fish have become imperiled due to a long history of pollution, damming and mismanagement of freshwater streams and rivers, especially in Tennessee. One of these fish, the Snail Darter, famously became one of the first tests of the endangered species act in 1978 when it was threatened with extinction by the construction of the Tellico dam. University of Tennessee ichthyologist David Etner successfully battled the dam in court and after a long fight the dam was completed. Fortunately the Snail Darter was later found in another nearby river. In 1986 two of Dr. Etner’s graduate students, Pat Rakes and J. R. Shute founded Conservation Fisheries to prevent the extinction of freshwater fish like the Snail Darter.
At the aquarium-like facility of Conservation Fisheries in Knoxville, we were greeted by Dr. Rakes and a friendly fish named Casper. Dozens of tanks fed by an intricate plumbing system mimic the natural conditions of freshwater streams. Temperature, dissolved oxygen and even day length are closely monitored. Eggs, either bred in the facility or collected in the wild, are hatched into larvae in tubs floating on the tops of tanks. The larvae quickly grow into adults as many of these fish may live only a year or two. These adult fish are brought to rivers and released, a practice called “stocking.” By stocking streams, often of the course of several years, fish species are reintroduced into streams from which they have been extirpated, increasing population size and reducing extinction risk. Conservation Fisheries also maintains several “ark” populations of captive fish which have been extirpated in the wild, an important practice for maintaining genetic diversity among species which may have been reduced to only a handful of populations.
Conservation fisheries undertook a project with Great Smoky Mountains National Park to reintroduce two small species of catfish, the Smoky Madtom and Yellowfin Madtom, to Abram’s creek. The two species, along with several others, had been extirpated in the fifties due to a misguided management practice to poison a creek and later introduce trout to create a “trophy” stream. Conservation fisheries successfully reintroduced both the Smoky and Yellowfin madtom into Abrams creek, first steps in returning the creek to its former diversity.
Check them out at: https://www.conservationfisheries.org/
This article was written by Elgin Akin and Rudi Boekschoten, biology interns at Discover Life in America. Find out more about DLiA and its internship program at dlia.org.
