Comment Period Reopened for Proposed Listing of the Spring Pygmy Sunfish as Threatened

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) has reopened the public comment period on the proposal to list the Spring Pygmy Sunfish (Elassoma alabamae) as threatened with critical habitat designated. (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-04-29/pdf/2013-09974.pdf). Public comments were reopened primarily due to 1) a slight reduction in proposed critical habitat (private property was inadvertently included in first proposal) and 2) a draft economic analysis is now available for review.

The Spring Pygmy Sunfish (Elassoma alabamae). Photo by Bernie Kuhajda.

Spring Pygmy Sunfish are restricted to springs and spring-fed creeks along a five-mile length of Beaverdam Creek in northern Alabama near Huntsville. This species was historically known from two other spring systems in the Tennessee River drainage in Alabama, but habitat destruction from dams, reservoirs, and herbicides caused these populations to disappear. It only reaches 1 inch, lives for a year, and needs clear spring water and dense submerged vegetation.  Spring Pygmy Sunfish are reliant on their vision to find food and mates, so clear water is essential.  The dense submerged vegetation is needed for the eggs to be successfully laid, hatched, and for juveniles and adults to hide from predators. These life history traits make the species vulnerable to habitat disturbances that muddy the water, herbicides that reduce or kill aquatic vegetation, and groundwater withdrawals. Lower water levels, together with drought conditions, have caused springs in the system to go completely dry.

Beaverdam Spring, ideal habitat for the Spring Pygmy Sunfish. Photo by Bernie Kuhajda.

Spring Pygmy Sunfish habitat in the Beaverdam Creek system is highly imperiled due to the rapid growth of nearby Huntsville (http://www.sasaki.com/project/227/huntsville-western-expansion-annexed-property-master-plan/) and an increase in agricultural and municipal groundwater pumping in the aquifer that feeds these springs. Construction projects with no or improperly installed silt fences and an increase in impervious surfaces that produces heavy stormwater runoff threaten water quality.

Ineffective silt fences along Beaverdam Creek that contribute to the siltation of critical habitat for the Spring Pygmy Sunfish. Photo by Mike Sandel.

Impervious surfaces also threaten water quantity by deflecting water that would normally recharge the underlying aquifer. These are just some of the escalating threats that Beaverdam Creek and the Spring Pygmy Sunfish are facing.

USFWS had determined that listing the Spring Pygmy Sunfish as threatened rather than endangered is warranted primarily due to conservation measures in a candidate conservation agreement with assurances (CCAA) between USFWS and Belle Mina Farm, Ltd. This company owns Beaverdam Spring, by far the largest spring in the system. However this CCAA gives no protection to the majority of the critical habitat and can be terminated at any moment. The Spring Pygmy Sunfish is restricted to one creek system, is totally reliant on groundwater, and there is an imminent threat of urbanization/industrialization within the recharge area of the aquifer. This led the Southeastern Fishes Council to consider the Spring Pygmy Sunfish as one of the Desperate Dozen, one of the 12 most critically imperiled fish species in the southeast (http://www.sefishescouncil.org/proceedings/sfcpro51.pdf). I personally think the Spring Pygmy Sunfish should be listed as endangered based on the best available science.

Pallid Sturgeon Draft Recovery Plan Available

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a draft revised recovery plan for the endangered Pallid Sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus (http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/Pallid%20Sturgeon%20Draft%20Revised%20Recovery%20final%20draft%2003%2004%202013%20for%20web%20publication.pdf). The species was listed as endangered in 1990, with the original recovery plan finalized in 1993. The Pallid Sturgeon is native to the Missouri and Mississippi rivers where it is restricted to the mainstem and lower reaches of larger tributaries.




The Pallid Sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus. Illustration by Joe Tomelleri.

This species is adapted to the pre-development conditions of free-flowing turbid warm water rivers with a variety of physical habitats that were in a constant state of change. Pallid Sturgeon reach 5.5 feet and 90 pounds and can live up to 41 years, with largest and oldest individuals being found in the upper Missouri River and smaller sizes in the lower Mississippi River. Males are not sexually mature until age 5 or later and females may not reproduce until age 15-20 years. They migrate upstream in the winter, spawning in the spring on hard surfaces with flowing water. Females can produce up to 170,000 eggs, but an individual female only spawns every 3-10 years; males spawn every 2-3 years. Upon hatching, larvae are photopositive (attracted to light) and drift in the water column for 11-17 days and 152-329 miles. Reservoirs below spawning grounds can result in total recruitment failure likely due to larvae settling to the bottom and dying. Pallid Sturgeon cruise along the river bottom to locate and eat invertebrates and small fishes with the aid of taste buds on their barbels and ampullary organs on the underside of their head, which use electroreception to detect the weak electrical fields emitted by prey.

Two adult Pallid Sturgeon from different parts of their range, the larger specimen is from the upper Missouri River and the smaller southern specimen is from the lower Mississippi/Atchafalaya Rivers. Photo by Bernie Kuhajda.

Current limiting factors for Pallid Sturgeon include (1) activities that affect connectivity and the natural form, function, and hydrologic processes of rivers; (2) illegal harvest, especially females for their eggs for caviar production; (3) impaired water quality and quantity; (4) entrainment in water diversion structures such as flood gates; and (5) life history attributes of the species (delayed sexual maturity, females not spawning every year, and larval drift requirements). The degree to which these factors affect the species varies among river reaches. The draft revised recovery plan focuses on a number of key issues: 

• The need to better understand certain life history traits and the complex interactions between these traits and altered habitats in the contemporary Missouri and Mississippi River basins.
• Threats abatement
• The listing of the Shovelnose Sturgeon (S. platorynchus) as threatened due to similarity of appearance within the range of the Pallid Sturgeon should decrease illegal harvest by eliminating caviar harvest.
• Population management using augmentation to conserve extant genetic variability and prevent localized extirpation.
• Researching and implementing habitat improvement.
• Monitoring habitat conditions.
• Monitoring population status.

Map of current range of Pallid Sturgeon, both wild and hatchery-reared fish. Data by National Pallid Sturgeon Database, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bismarck, North Dakota. Figure from the draft revised recovery plan.

USFWS requests your assistance by reviewing the draft revised recovery plan and providing any information that you may have on the Pallid Sturgeon that is not already included.  Information must be submitted on or before 14 May 2013 and can be submitted to the Project Leader, Northern Rockies Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2900 4th Avenue North, Room 301, Billings, MT 59101.

Lake Sturgeon Sampling 2012

TNACI loves November, and not just for the Thanksgiving holiday.  November is the month for Lake Sturgeon monitoring!  For one week TNACI and its partners in the Lake Sturgeon reintroduction project (University of Tennessee, US Fish and Wildlife, TWRA, and TVA) intensely sample the upper Tennessee River in an effort to capture sturgeon that have been released there over the last 14 years.

We actually kicked off our week of sturgeon in New Orleans at the Southeastern Fishes Council meeting where scientists from all over the Southeastern U.S. convened to share their research.  TNACI talked to this group about the Lake Sturgeon project and how far it has come in the last decade.  After catching only 5 Lake Sturgeon over 10 years, the working group enlisted the help of commercial fishermen in November 2011.  This resulted in 34 sturgeon caught over the sampling week!  They ranged from the 1999-2010 year class and the largest was 44 inches and 18 pounds.  The scientists at SFC were excited to hear about the beginning of recovery of Lake Sturgeon in the Tennessee River, and TNACI was eager to hit the water and see what happened this year.

The day after we got back from New Orleans, we met with the Lake Sturgeon team near Knoxville to begin baiting hooks and determining where to sample.  Each day’s schedule was basically the same: 

1. Pull trotlines in the morning

Kathilna pulling in lines with TWRA

2.  Re-bait

Evan baiting trotlines

Ashford chopping bait

 3.  Setting trotlines in the evening

TWRA putting out trotlines

Trotlining is a very labor-intensive fishing method, as lines must be coiled carefully within the box to ensure the lines go out without getting caught on themselves. 

Ashford coiling

Look at those beautiful coils!

Trotlining gone wrong

It was a cold week, with air temperatures in the 30’s most mornings.  The first evening we set trotlines in the rain! Thankfully, this effort in bad weather was not wasted as the team caught 17 sturgeon the first day!

Kathlina with a Lake Sturgeon

Every Sturgeon was measured and weighed.

Dave Matthews from TVA with a Lake Sturgeon

Measuring a Lake Sturgeon

We also scanned each fish for a Passive Integrative Transponder (PIT) tag.  PIT tags are basically like the microchips that are commonly used in pets.  Each tag has a unique number that can be used to identify an individual.  If the fish did not have a PIT tag, we injected one so that we can monitor recapture and movement.  

Injecting a PIT tag

Scanning for a PIT tag

We also checked to see which scutes were missing to determine the age of the fish. 

Scutes 5 & 6 appear to be missing from this fish

TVA began collecting data on the type of bottom where we were catching sturgeon by collecting sediment with a PONAR grab dredge.  The sediment composition through the sampling area did not seem to change much, as it was mostly composed of clay and some silt.

Depositing sediement

Putting out the PONAR grab dredge

Mostly clay and silt sediment from Fort Loudoun Reservoir

It was a successful week, with 52 Lake Sturgeon caught by Friday.  The biggest was nine years old, 49 inches and 17 pounds.  This is the most we have ever caught in a single sampling week and is almost double last year’s catch.  While this is a promising sign, it is still too soon to determine if this will be a self sustaining population.  Lake Sturgeon do not reproduce until they are in their teens, and the oldest fish in the Tennessee River right now are 14 years old.  We are also not sure how much dams are affecting the movement of the fish.  Some have been caught as far downstream as Kentucky Lake, but it is still yet to be seen if the dams and reservoirs will affect reproduction and recruitment.  We hope that one day there will be a healthy recreational fishery for this special animal.  But remember, it is still illegal to keep a Lake Sturgeon, so if you catch one, please release it and report it to TWRA; you will receive a certificate of appreciation.

   

Bernie with a Lake Sturgeon

Proposed Listing of the Spring Pygmy Sunfish as Threatened

The Spring Pygmy Sunfish Elassoma alabamae

The imperiled Spring Pygmy Sunfish (Elassoma alabamae), which is restricted to springs and spring-fed creeks along a five-mile length of Beaverdam Creek in northern Alabama, was proposed for federal listing as threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on 2 October 2012. Critical habitat for the species is also designated. This species was historically known from two other spring systems in the Tennessee River drainage in Alabama, but habitat destruction from dams, reservoirs, and herbicides caused these populations to disappear.

Beaverdam Spring, ideal habitat for the Spring Pygmy Sunfish

  

The Spring Pygmy Sunfish only reaches 1 inch, only lives for a year, and needs clear spring water and dense submerged vegetation.  They are reliant on their vision to find food and mates, so clear water is essential.  The dense submerged vegetation is needed for the eggs to be successfully laid, hatch, and for juveniles and adults to hide from predators. These life history traits make the species vulnerable to habitat disturbances that muddy the water, herbicides that reduce or kill aquatic vegetation, and groundwater withdrawals that lower water levels and together with drought conditions have caused springs in the system to go completely dry.

Spring Pygmy Sunfish habitat in the Beaverdam Creek system is highly imperiled due to the rapid growth of nearby Huntsville and an increase in agricultural and municipal groundwater pumping in the aquifer that feeds these springs. Construction projects with no or improperly installed silt fences and an increase in impervious surfaces that produces heavy stormwater runoff threaten water quality.

Ineffective silt fences along Beaverdam Creek that contribute to the siltation of critical habitat
 

Impervious surfaces also threaten water quantity by deflecting water that would normally recharge the underlying aquifer. These are just some of the escalating threats that Beaverdam Creek and the Spring Pygmy Sunfish are facing.