AmericanAmerican FisheriesFisheries SocietySociety -Georgia ChapterChapter NewsletterNewsletter The Bycatch - 2010 Edition Editor: Brittany Trushel, UGA Fisheries Chapter We are on the web: www.uga.edu/ugafish/ga GA AFS President’s Message -afs/home.htm Fun Factoids: I am continually amazed at the excellent fisheries work that continues to be ac- complished by Georgia AFS members even in these unstable economic times. I would The GA record smallmouth also like to thank everyone for last year’s AFS participation and outstanding talks, as well bass (7 lbs 2 oz) was caught in as everyone’s contributions to fisheries science in Georgia and beyond. 1973 on Lake Chatuge in The 2011 Georgia Chapter meeting will be held at the Georgia National Fair- Hayesville, GA. grounds in Perry, GA on February 2-3. A pizza lunch will be provided on February 2nd rd The GA record Suwannee bass and Raymond Graham will be back with another outstanding BBQ lunch on the 3 . For (3lbs 9 oz) was caught in 1984 those needing accommodations for the meeting, a block of rooms has been reserved at on the Ochlocknee River in the nearby Microtel Inn and Suites (478-987-4004). Room rates are $49 for singles, $59 Thomasville, GA (see The Rar- for doubles, and $69 for suites. Although we will not hold the customary evening ban- est Black Bass of Georgia, quet, there will be a student social at 6:00 PM Wednesday, February 2nd. Questions re- page 2, for more information garding the student social should be directed to Brittany Trushel on the Suwannee Bass). ([email protected].) The raffle will be held following lunch on Feb 3 and will offer some outstanding prizes as usual. As it especially helps in the meal planning, please register early! Inside this issue: Continued on page 8. The Suwannee Bass 2 A Brief Introduction to the History of “Sight Sampling” for 3 Tripletail Ichthyology in Georgia The Suwannee Bass 4 (continued) Well, Joseph Kirsch (AFS subunit officer) said I could write about anything I ORCTU 2010 Update 5 wanted, so I decided to use this article as an excuse to learn a little more about the his- tory of Ichthyology in Georgia. With assistance from Mieko Camp and Greg Krakow of the “Sight Sampling” 6 Nongame Conservation Section (GADNR-WRD), I have summarized information on scien- (continued) tific descriptions of all native freshwater fishes in our state. Not surprisingly, three out of Ichthyology History 7 four of our known fish species were described before 1900, with the peak number of de- (Continued) scriptions occurring in the early and late 1800s (Figure 1). The rate of new species de- Ichthyology History 8 scriptions significantly wanes after 1900, but does not steadily decrease as you might (Continued) predict if ichthyologists had exhausted available diversity. In fact, the number of species The Suwannee Bass described per year is actually higher in the most recent decade (0.70 species per year) 9 (continued) when compared to the previous 25-year period (0.56 species per year). This pattern sug- gests that additional taxonomic research on Georgia’s freshwater fishes will be fruitful GA Student Awards 10 and indeed necessary if we want to properly catalog, conserve, and appreciate our fish diversity. 2011 GA AFS Regis- 11 tration form Continued on page 7. 1 The Rarest Black Bass of Georgia Did you know that six of the seven species of black bass are found in Georgia? These include the largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides, smallmouth bass, M. dolomieu, shoal bass , M. cataractae, red- eye bass M. coosae, spotted bass M. punctulatus, and Suwannee bass M. notius. The Guadalupe bass M. treculi of Texas is the only black bass not found in our state waters. As a fisheries biologist, I have been fortunate enough to work in the only two states where the Suwannee bass is found, Florida and Georgia. The Suwannee bass is a relatively small but robust, deep- bodied, black bass species (Bailey and Hubbs 1949; Hurst et al. 1975) that can reach lengths up to 420 mm (16.5 in) (Bonvechio and Freeman 2009). It has a relatively large mouth and the upper jaw extends under the eye, but not past the eye. It has a shallow dorsal fin notch with about 12 unique diamond- shaped vertical bars found along both sides of the fish. Their most distinguishing characteristic is the bright turquoise blue that can be found on the cheeks, breast and sometimes ventral parts of mature fish. These characteristics appear to be more profound around the breeding season. The lat- eral line has 58 to 61 scales (Cailteux et al. 2002b). Currently, it has the smallest range and geographic distribution of any of the black bass species (Koppelman and Garrett 2002), encom- passing roughly 8,500 km2 (Bonvechio et al 2010). Suwannee bass occur in the Ichetuck- nee, Santa Fe, St. Marks, Suwannee, Wacissa, and Wakulla rivers of Florida, as well as the Alapaha, Ochlockonee, and Withlacoochee riv- ers of Florida and Georgia (Hellier 1967; Hurst et al. 1975; MacCrimmon and Robbins 1975; Swift et al. 1977; Cailteux et al. 2002a, 2002b; Bonvechio et al. 2005; Bonvechio et al. 2010). Both Florida and Georgia consider the Suwan- nee bass a species of special concern (Gruver The author holding a 406 mm TL Suwannee bass captured in the Ochlock- 2006, Georgia DNR 2010), mainly due its re- onee River, Florida, in October 2001. Photo Courtesy of Galen Kauffman stricted geographic range. However, urban ex- pansion and development, which have led to increased water withdrawals (Koppelman and Garret 2002), and an extensive history of industrial-related discharges, which have resulted in several fish kills (Keefer and Ober 1977; Bonvechio and Freeman 2009), continue to threaten the water quality of the rivers these fish inhabit. Furthermore, the introduced flathead catfish Pylodictis olivaris have recently been found to occur in the Ochlockonee River of Florida (Cailteux and Dobbins 2005). This invasive predator has been known to negatively affect other fish populations when introduced in Georgia rivers (Thomas 1993; Bon- vechio et al. 2009). Fortunately, the flathead catfish has not been confirmed in the Georgia waters of the Ochlockonee but they may indeed exist. Continued on page 4. 2 “Sight sampling” off the Jekyll Island, GA coast for tripletail Tripletail, also known as eddy fish, buoy bass and blackfish, is an interesting species that aggregates off Geor- gia’s Jekyll Island coast. Little is known about the life history of this unusual fish, which can be seen leisurely floating at the surface on its side waiting for its next meal to arrive. A growing number of recreational anglers are discovering this tripletail aggregation that allows true sight fishing on the Georgia coast. Anglers stalk the floating fish and attempt to place a lure or natural bait directly in front of them, some even dare to attempt to fool the fish with fly fishing. Triple- tail have a variety of reactions to the bait in front of them, Spud and Chris Woodward scan the water in pursuit of some immediately crash the bait while others will slowly in- tripletail off the Jekyll Island, GA coast. Anglers seek a high perch to allow them to see tripletail at a greater spect the bait from all angles and simply swim away. The distance. excitement does not end with the bait presentation because once a tripletail knows that it is hooked it will give long hard runs and even take to the air. In response to the growing number of recreational anglers putting pressure on this aggregation, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources – Coastal Resource Division and the University of Georgia have partnered together to study this unique fish. The study focuses on age determination and reproduc- tive status of the tripletail in the Jekyll Island aggregation. The study uses otoliths (fish ear stones) and the first dorsal spine to determine the age structure of fish in this aggre- gation. The structures are cross-sectioned and aged just like counting rings on a tree section. Through comparing the two structures researchers believe they have found agreement. Ag- ing tripletail via the first dorsal spine is preferred because it can be removed non-lethally. Tripletail off the Jekyll Island coast ap- pear to grow rapidly, up to 16 inches in a year. The oldest fish found was 4 years old and weighed 24 pounds. Through under- standing the age structure of the aggregation, researchers can better manage the population in the future. Landing a tripletail captured by researchers off the Researchers also collected reproductive organs for histo- beach at Jekyll Island, GA in May 2010. logical examination to determine if the Jekyll Island aggregation consists of spawning tripletail. Blood plasma samples were also collected and sent to the University of Florida for vitellogenin, the egg yolk precursor, analysis. Elevated vitellogenin levels have been used as an accurate predictor of reproductive stage in many species of fish. Researchers are currently awaiting results from the vitellogenin analysis. Preliminary histology results indicate the aggregation off the coast of Jekyll Island is not a spawning aggregation. Although the primary goal of the study was to determine if the free-floating tripletail aggregation off the Jekyll Island beachfront was a spawning aggregation, researchers were able to sample tripletail on structure within the St. Simons estuary. Fish sampled from the structure were typically larger and some were in more advanced reproductive stages. Continued on page 6. 3 The Rarest Black Bass of Georgia Continued from page 2. The Suwannee bass’s diet consists mostly of crayfishes, but they are also known to eat fishes, aquatic insects (Schramm and Maceina 1986; Cailteux 2002b), as well blue crabs in estuarine areas (Warren 2009).