The Chesapeake logperch is believed to just ever have populated the lower drains of the Susquehanna and Potomac rivers, and it has not been seen in the Potomac because the late 1930s. Credit: Penn State
Scientist highlight the heightened seriousness to restore the river and conserves population.
A Penn State research study team, in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, has started a mission to save a distinct darter from the lower Susquehanna River. Their findings exposed that this fish is an unique subspecies not discovered elsewhere, stressing the seriousness to restore its population.
Identified by its yellow to olive shade, the Chesapeake logperch is a darter family member with dark patterns typically resembling zebra stripes. Usually measuring simply a few inches, this fish has a petite mouth and a brief, cone-shaped snout.
To reach their conclusion that the Chesapeake logperch, Percina bimaculata, is among a kind– just recently published in Fishes– the researchers collected thousands of specimens of logperch using seines, electrofishing units, and amazed benthic trawls from the Allegheny River, from tributaries of Lake Erie and from the lower Susquehanna River. They likewise consisted of specimens from the Mississippi River drainage, gathered in Illinois and Minnesota and stored at the Illinois Natural History Survey, in the study.
To compare the fish from the various populations, researchers made 18 measurements and 7 rely on specimens, measuring attributes such as the existence or lack of scales on the fishes nape, and the variety of rays of the pectoral fin, lateral-line scales, and gill rakers.
” We concluded that the Chesapeake logperch found in the lower Susquehanna River and a few of its tributaries is not the same as closely associated fish found in the other drainages,” said group leader Jay Stauffer, distinguished professor of ichthyology at Penn State. “That makes our project to rescue and reintroduce the fish into the river and tributaries a lot more urgent.”
To reach their conclusion that the Chesapeake logperch is among a kind, the researchers collected thousands of specimens of logperch utilizing seines, electrofishing systems and energized benthic trawls from the Allegheny River, from tributaries of Lake Erie and from the lower Susquehanna River. Credit: Penn State
Stauffer and his research group in Penn States College of Agricultural Sciences, in combination with Doug Fischer of the Pennsylvania Fish & & Boat Commission, simply concluded a four-year effort to bring back the logperch population in the lower Susquehanna, which was moneyed by grants amounting to almost $500,000 from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and the Pennsylvania Wild Resources Fund.
For the reintroduction, Stauffer and several graduate students finished underwater snorkel studies in sections of the lower Susquehanna and choose tributaries, catching Chesapeake logperch and determining which habitats the fish frequents. They surveyed and gathered fish from the Susquehanna River listed below the Holtwood Dam in Pennsylvania and in 6 tributaries.
In Maryland, the researchers collected darters from just listed below Conowingo Dam and in the Susquehanna Flats at the rivers mouth in the Chesapeake Bay.
The researchers then cultured– which suggests breeding and raising in this context– some 2,000 Chesapeake logperch in Penn State facilities and presented the fish into chosen areas with excellent environments in their historical variety in the Susquehanna River drainage.
” We tagged all Chesapeake logperch that were cultured before releasing them so they might be identified later, and we had the ability to recapture a few around Columbia,” Stauffer stated. “And we also put electronic tags in a whole series of fish we put in Conodoquinet Creek, to see if they migrate out to the Susquehanna River. We didnt have adequate time to see if they came back to generate, so were continuing some of this work and looking for other funding.”
The fish has been a victim of previous pollution, Stauffer pointed out, today is threatened by predation by ravenous invasive fishes, including the northern snakehead, flathead catfish and blue catfish that are colonizing the lower Susquehanna. The varieties of the Chesapeake logperch have actually decreased significantly in the river and a few of its tributaries.
” Few individuals understand how severe and pervasive the threat intrusive predatory fish present to native benthic fish fauna,” Stauffer stated.
Already noted as threatened in Pennsylvania and Maryland, the Chesapeake logperch is on the edge of being contributed to the federal endangered types list. That could have dire consequences for the lower Susquehanna River, Stauffer warned.
” We do not wish to see that happen, due to the fact that the Chesapeake logperch being federally listed would trigger a great deal of issues with development in the lower Susquehanna River basin and likewise with development around the upper Chesapeake Bay,” he stated. “We believe that we can bring back the Chesapeake logperch to its initial distribution in the Susquehanna River by culturing and translocating it and reestablishing it to its native environment. However it is going to take some more time and possibly more intros.”
The effort to save the Chesapeake logperch is novel, Stauffer stated he thinks.
” There has actually been a fair bit of work performed in the last 10 years or two attempting to restore fishes to their environments, however there are not many repair projects of this magnitude with a types that has not been federally listed,” he stated. “To attempt to avoid a types from being federally noted is quite unique.”
Why go to all this difficulty to save this unimpressive little fish? Stauffer admitted he had asked himself that question. Because the Chesapeake logperch has no industrial worth and it is not of recreational value, a conventional cost-benefit analysis on losing the fish can not be performed, he yielded.
” If it goes extinct, we have actually lost another species that inhabit the Earth,” he stated. “I think there is something to be stated for preserving the biodiversity of our water systems.
At one point, Stauffer, 72, saw the just-concluded very first stage of the Chesapeake logperch rescue and reintroduction as his last research study job. Now he desires to complete the task.
” I believe Im visiting this thing through and not retire for a while,” he stated.
Reference: “Morphological Comparison of the Chesapeake Logperch Percina bimaculata with the Logperch Percina c. caprodes and Percina c. semifasciata in Pennsylvania” by Jay R. Stauffer, Jr., Jonathan A. Freedman, Douglas P. Fischer and Robert W. Criswell, 27 May 2023, Fishes.DOI: 10.3390/ fishes8060288.
Adding to the research study were Jonathan Freedman, former graduate student; Douglas Fischer, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission; and Robert Criswell, retired from the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
Financing for this research was supplied by the Department of the Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Wild Resources Conservation Program, and the U.S. Department of Agricultures National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
” We tagged all Chesapeake logperch that were cultured before launching them so they could be recognized later, and we were able to recapture a few around Columbia,” Stauffer said. “And we also put electronic tags in a whole series of fish we put in Conodoquinet Creek, to see if they move out to the Susquehanna River.” We do not want to see that happen, because the Chesapeake logperch being federally listed would cause a lot of problems with development in the lower Susquehanna River basin and likewise with advancement around the upper Chesapeake Bay,” he said. “We believe that we can restore the Chesapeake logperch to its original distribution in the Susquehanna River by culturing and translocating it and reintroducing it to its native habitat. Due to the fact that the Chesapeake logperch has no industrial value and it is not of recreational importance, a conventional cost-benefit analysis on losing the fish can not be performed, he conceded.