Master Naturalist Introducon to Ichthyology

Paul Bugas Region 4 Aquacs Manager Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries

VDGIF Mission Statement • To conserve and manage wildlife populations and habitat for the benefit of present and future generations

• To connect people to Virginia’s outdoors through boating, education, fishing, hunting, trapping, wildlife viewing, and other wildlife- related activities

• To protect people and property by promoting safe outdoor experiences and managing human-wildlife conflicts “To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering” Aldo Leopold Biodiversity

Biodiversi ty Early Ichthyologists

Edward Drinker Cope (1840- 1897) Renown Paleontologist Wealthy Quaker Background Published 1,400 Papers

David Starr Jordan (1851 – 1931) President of Stanford University Espoused Eugenics

Edward C. Raney (1909 – 1952)

Ichthyology (from Greek: ἰχθύς, ikhthus, ""; and λόγος, logos, "study") Freshwater of Virginia

• Fish families • Families and their habitats • Major family representaves • Species distribuon • Endemics

What is a Fish?

• Cold-blooded • Fins • Gills • Scales • Slime coat • • Gas bladder • Osmoregulaon Fish Senses • Taste – fish oen “spit out” unsavory food items; taste buds on barbels, top of head, in mouth, or on lips • Touch – fish oen “mouth” food items; lateral line is a sensory organ • Hearing – sound is picked up by bones in head; some fish have bones connected to air bladder; earstones or otoliths • Sight – can oen discern brightness and color; cannot see straight down or back • Smell – most have well developed sense of smell

(Social)

(Unknown) (Power)

(Steering & Braking)

(Stability)

(Anti-roll) Reasons for High Diversity of Fish Species in Virginia Climate and Physiography • high rainfall • geology and topography complex • unglaciated • historical and recent diversity of aquatic environment Biological • high speciation rates due to complex dispersal history

Pleistocene Epoch ended 12,000 years ago Drainage Basins in Virginia

Interior

Atlantic Slope of Virginia Virginia’s 10 Major Drainages

Potomac

York Big Sandy New James Rappahannock

Roanoke Chowan

Tennessee PeeDee Virginia’s 10 Major Drainages 30

25 x 1000) 2 20

15

10

5 Drainage Area (Km 0

New York James Chowan Roanoke Potomac Pee Dee Big Sandy Tennessee

Rappahannock Native Fish Species in Virginia’s Major Drainages 120 Natives Natives and Introduced

100

80

60

40

20

Number of Fish Species 0 Virginia’s Endemic Fish Species 16

12

8

4 Number of Fish Species

0

New James Roanoke Potomac Tennessee Physiographic Provinces in Virginia

Valley and Ridge

Appalachian Plateau

Blue Ridge Piedmont Coastal Plain Fish • Kingdom - Animalia

– Phylum – Chordata • possess a notochord at some point in development

• Class – Osteichthyes (Bony fishes) or Supraclass for jawless fish (Agnatha) such as lampreys – Order – » Minnows and suckers – Order – Salmoniformes » Salmon and trout – Order » -like (two dorsal fins - separated) Virginia’s Freshwater Fish 25 Families

Petromyzontidae Umbridae Atherinidae Acipenseridae Fundulidae Polyodontidae Catostomidae Poeciliidae Lepisosteidae Ictaluridae Cottidae Amiidae Salmonidae Moronidae Anguillidae Gaserosteidae Centrarchidae Clupeidae Aphredoderidae Esocidae Amblyopsidae Sciaenidae Channidae

227 Species 235 taxa Freshwater Fish Families in Virginia Number of Fish Species by State

> 220 188 153 188 200-219 201 220 180-199 257 150-179 200 257 219 100-149 < 100 Mountain Trout Streams Trout

Sculpin Large Minnow

Perch

Sucker Large Rivers Catfish

Muskellunge Paddlefish Swamps Sunfish

Pirate Perch

Swampfish Lampreys

Atlantic sturgeon Longnose gar

James Percidae Watershed Minnows

• 2,000+ species – largest fish family • Largest in VA – Common carp • 320 in • Jaws lack teeth • Only found in freshwater • Major component of the food web

Minnows (Chubs)

Bluehead Chub Bigmouth Chub

River Chub Bull Chub

Perch

• 235 species worldwide • Teeth on jaw • 217 in North America • Two dorsal fins • Darters comprise 214 members • High economic and ecological • All but one darter species occurs importance east of the continental divide Candy darter

Credit: Derek Wheaton Perch ()

Roanoke Logperch

Blotchside Logperch

Logperch Moronidae

White

Striped Bass

Hybrid

White Perch James River Drainage Endemics

Derek Wheaton Roughhead Shiner

Longfin Darter Threats to Freshwater Fish

• Dams and their associated operations • Exotic Species • Loss of habitat

Diadromous Fishes

• Anadromous Fish - Fish that spend their adult life in the ocean (salt water) and migrate up coastal rivers to in fresh-water.

• American Eels are Virginia’s Catadromous species, which spend their adult life in fresh-water and migrate to the ocean to spawn.

• These species need habitat conservation from mountain streams to the ocean. Exotic Species Introductions Zebra Mussels Wooly Adelgid - Exotic Invasive • An exotic that is destroying our native Hemlock trees along streams.

• How could the loss of these Hemlocks effect the ecosystem? Health Issues with Smallmouth Bass ECOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS

FRAGMENTATION AND EDGE EFFECT As the human population continues to grow, development reduces and fragments remaining undisturbed habitat.

Point Source Pollution Non-Point Source Pollution Channelization Urban Impacts Erosion

Nutrification

Unrestricted Cattle Strategies for Aquatic Habitat Improvement Wetlands Protection

• Filter out nutrients and pollutants

• Flood control

• Groundwater recharge areas

• Habitat for rare and endangered species

Healthy Riparian Area

• Filter runoff removing excess nutrients and sediments. • Helps stabilize the stream banks from erosion. • Provides shade to the stream to reduce water temperature. • Increases fish and aquatic habitat quality and quantity. • Provides food and “energy to aquatic organisms (leaf litter).

Fencing and Riparian Buffer Restoration

Strategies for Aquatic Habitat Improvement Before

Rural Stream Restoration

During

After Before Urban Stream Restoration

During

After Dump & Sinkhole Clean-ups Electrofishing Trap Nets Hatcheries & Fish Stocking Creel Surveys Gill nets

“In the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.”

- Buba Dioum

Credit: Lance Merry Books Ø Freshwater Fishes of Virginia Ø Robert E. Jenkins and Noel M. Burkhead Ø Available from http://www.afsbooks.org/ - $110

Ø Fish Watching: An Outdoor Guide to Freshwater Fishes Ø C. Lavett Smith Ø Amazon.com - $27

Ø Freshwater Fishes of the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware Ø Fred C. Rohde, Rudolf G. Arndt, David G. Lindquist, and James F. Parnell Ø Amazon.com - $7 to $25

http://web1.cnre.vt.edu/efish/