Joyce Coombs
Friday, October 17, 2008 - 11:30-12:00
Beginning in 2001, a cooperative effort was begun to restore viable native fish populations to the Pigeon River, once so polluted that all mollusks and many fish species were extirpated. Volunteers from federal and state agencies, industry, and private organizations created the Pigeon River Recovery Project to begin re-introduction of native fish and other aquatic species. Early successes in TN led to the expansion of the project upstream into western NC. A total of 15 species of fish have been collected from the French Broad basin and the upper reaches of the Pigeon River itself. To assess survival of relocated species, fluorescent visible implant elastomer (VIE) was used to tag darter species. Reproduction was first documented in gilt darters in 2003. Monitoring surveys over the past four years have documented gilt, bluebreast, and stripetail darters and mountain madtoms in the Pigeon River near Newport, TN. In 2005, a snorkel survey in the lower five miles of the Pigeon River documented healthy gilt darters of every age inhabiting nearly every riffle; this species appears to be successfully re-colonizing the Pigeon River in TN. Of six transplanted species in NC, four shiners (mirror, telescope, Tennessee, silver) and the gilt darter have been collected during monitoring efforts. Silver shiners have dispersed almost eight miles upstream of the nearest release site. Conservation Fisheries Inc. propagated the first tangerine darters in captivity and released the first juveniles into the Pigeon River near Denton, TN, in 2007.
Keywords: PIGEON RIVER, RE-INTRODUCTION, NATIVE SPECIES, GILT DARTER