Hello Folks!

We have adopted a new Newsletter Format! Starting January 2013 all of the Newsletters will be archived and there will be links that will take you right to them! Hope this works out well for everyone! Thanks!

Happy Holidays folks!

It has been a long field season! It may finally be over. Pat and crew just returned from Shoal Creek and the vicinity of the Elk River. We still had some boulder darters and spotfin chub destined for Shoal Creek that needed to be released!

Last month, in July 2012 Conservation Fisheries turned Twenty! We've actually been doing this work for more than 20 years....since about 1986 actually. And if you count work done as graduate students here at the University of Tennessee, even longer! But, in July 1992, we were incorporated as a non-profit corporation! Now, for any of you that know us or have seen our facility, it's kinda hard to think of us as corporate! But.....that's us!

Well folks, it's hard to believe, but Conservation Fisheries turned 20 this week! That is, we were incorporated as a non-profit organization 20 years ago. We've actually been doing our work for more than 25 years! And, if you count the years as graduate students working on some of these same rare fishes, well, we're talking more than 30 years!

Happy Springtime everyone! Well, maybe that's a bit premature, but the pine warblers are singing in my back yard, the trout lilies are starting to bloom and we've already been in the water snorkeling this week! I do believe snorkeling in February may be a first for us! And, it wasn't so bad! On top of that, the little snubnose darters in Spring Creek (of the Hiwassee) were already spawning. They were about as intensely colored as any I've ever seen!

In the hatchery, love is in the air as well! Our ashy darters (Little River in Tennessee) are spawning. We have collected fertile eggs and these are developing. This has been a difficult species for us. Most of the previous work we've done with them involved fish from the Clinch River. We'll soon see how Little River fish compare.

Numerous other species are preparing to spawn, including: gilt darters, blotchside logperch and Kentucky arrow darters. We are probably already getting egg production from several other species that we maintain, but don't actively spawn.

We will post updates on these and other species in the hatchery soon!

Good news! CFI has been selected by Endow-Bio, Inc., the National Endowment for Biodiversity, to receive funds raised through the organization’s on line community of supporters in 2012. CFI and four other non-profits were selected from more than 900 nationwide for this unique opportunity to help build a new way to support organizations addressing “rare species management, scientific research, environmental education, environmental law, land acquisition, habitat management, advocacy, wilderness, wildlife rehabilitation, family planning and other social issues relating to conservation of biodiversity”. Find out more at their website, Endow-Bio.org. This is only their second year of fundraising effort, so they are still in a building phase, but this presents an even better opportunity for CFI if we can get large numbers of our supporters to join this new way to support conservation (for as little as $1!) So visit their website, make a donation, and vote for CFI. Then spread the word!

Don't forget to "Like" CFI on Facebook if you do that sort of thing! We frequently post photos and videos and provide updates as to "goings on" around our place and in the world of imperiled fishes!

Your support means more than ever these days! If you can, drop by the old PayPal bucket and drop a few bucks in! Every contribution counts and we very much appreciate ALL of them!

Have a great Spring, and if today is any indication, batton down the hatches! It might be a rough one!

J. R.

Hi Folks!

Well, we're trying to wrap up another year of field and hatchery work! The prolonged nice weather (around here at least!) this fall allowed us to get mostly caught up with planned field work. As usual, however, some work did go unfinished! Once the weather did turn and the rain started....well, it hasn't let up much!

Hi Folks! And welcome to the inferno of summer! Yikes, it's hot! But, despite the storms of last month and the heat of this month, CFI is still plugging along. In fact, we are having a Summer Fund Drive! And, we have an anniversary of sorts coming up in September! 

Wow! What an early spring! We’ve been into the field a few times, but the real excitement has been in the hatchery. Our usual early spawners have been busy…..slackwater darters were probably the earliest. But the big news is the Conasauga logperch, Percina jenkinsi. In addition to developing a captive propagation protocol for these exceedingly rare fish, we are working with the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute (TNACI) in an attempt to understand the population genetics structure throughout their limited range.

On December 1st, 2010, the public radio program, "The Story with Dick Gordon" featured an interview with Pat and J.R.

Joel Sartore Photography was kind enough to allow the use of a photo Joel took of Pat and J.R. and Jay Clark graciously allowed the use of his song, "Catfish" to be used at the end of the program. Check out more of Jay's songs at www.jayclarkmusic.com.

Here's the link to the interview: http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_1180_Pat_and_JR.mp3/view

Enjoy!

J.R.

What a busy season! We pushed hard to complete the fieldwork we had planned for the year before cold water, leaves and the holidays caught up to us! Weather was pretty cooperative, but cold water came a bit earlier this year. It's not just that we shudder at snorkeling in cold water, but many of the fish go to cover in the cold and can be very difficult to find at all! And, then, there's the leaf litter!

Hello Folks!

I know that I have not kept up with the Newsletter as well as I had hoped to. But, it does get hectic this time of year!

One thing that has been kept up with a little bit better is our Facebook page. You can click on this from our Home page. Please take a few moments to become a fan of ours! The Facebook is pretty much a "fun" outlet for us! The other day, Pat said....maybe we shouldn't post all these pictures of us "having fun" in the water. People might get the wrong idea about the work we do....or if we really do "work".

Hi Folks!

Well, I thought I'd be able to do a better job of keeping up with the Newsletter/Blog.....but. Work just gets in the way, I suppose!

As usual, this time of year is one of our busiest. The weather has been a little more cooperative, but still we've had to spend alot of days dodging thunderstorms.

Things in the hatchery have been....well... mixed. We have had our diamond darters, Crystallaria cincotta, spawn for us. We have five individuals in the hatchery. I have posted a couple videos on our Youtube link. That's the good news! The bad news is that we have had very few viable eggs produced and no larval survival so far! We are learning things, as usual. But these guys still remain somewhat of a mystery to us. One thing of interest, the larvae! They look like little monsters! They have a mouth full of sharp teeth!

Crystallaria cincotta (photo Crystal Ruble)

Scarry Huh! Crystal has even wondered if maybe these guys feed on other larval fish? Hopefully we will have other chances with them. But, for now, be sure to check out the video. There are two, one with a black and white "lipstick" cam and one with a hand-held video.

Many of our fish are producing good numbers of eggs and larvae now. I'll try to get better about updating these!

One of the coolest things in  field work this year was seeing both boulder darters and spotfin chubs in Shoal Creek. Keep in mind that this was shortly after the floods that hit the Nashville area! The creek had gone from a couple hundred cubic feet per second (CFS) flows to over 50,000 CFS in a day! One of the three highest levels ever measured there! It was encouraging to see that our fish hadn't been all swept away!

OK, I promise I'll try to do better about keeping this current! Hope your summer goes well!

J. R. Shute

CFI Newsletter April 12, 2010

Hi Folks!

I’m going to take a quick opportunity to crank out another short Newsletter/Blog. Things may get so hectic that I’m not able to do this regularly, but I intend to try!

This past week has been pretty exciting! We were able to see something no one else has ever seen! Diamond darter eggs and larvae! Yep, our five diamond darters are now spawning. We haven’t been able to catch them in the act yet, but we are monitoring them with a small underwater camera.  Crystal vacuumed the substrate and found several viable eggs and larvae. We are also able to collect larvae that are caught by the tank overflow. These collect in a tub below the tank. We just have a few at this time, but they seem to be doing well.

Hi Folks!

Well, our new site has been up and running for a week or so. We've gotten great feedback from some of you. Thanks! There are still some glitches and still some pages under construction. And the page has still not completely migrated to it's new home. But, we're making progress!

As the weather warms (and it's been SLOW to do so around here!), more and more fish are becoming romatically inclined. We've had rush darters and slackwater darters spawning. Our ashy darters are spawning some. These continue to be very difficult! We have rainbow darters spawning that will be used as host fish for rare mussel propagation. The Kentucky arrow darters and Cumberland darters have just begun spawning. The gilt darters (a restoration project in New York) look like they're right on the verge of doing something! Maybe the warm-up predicted for later this week will send them over the edge.

We have continued to post to our Facebook Page and we've gotten many new "Friends" since the site has been up! Thanks to all of you.

We told you about the National Geographic article last time. We continue to get some great interest in that! Joel Sartore took the photos in the article and has generously provided us with some for our site. We hope to get some more of his beautiful photos posted up in the near future. Also, Joel has a beautiful new coffee table book featuring many of America's rarest animals. The book is Rare: Portraits of America's Endangered Species. Some of our fish made it into the book. Please check his book out at  www.rarethebook.com.

Thanks again for your continued interest in our work!

J. R. Shute

Hi Folks! We are pleased to unveil our newly designed web site! We like to thank Sam Silvey at Hub Design Group in Chattanooga, TN. We feel like Sam’s done an excellent job of interpreting what we were looking for into a nice, easily navigated site! And, we’re not nearly done with it yet! Many of the species accounts are not completed and some of the others have nothing written yet! We’ll get there….soon! We’re also including some references in these accounts. Eventually, the references will link to the complete citation. Again, soon!

Well, it's a new decade! And, after a deep freeze around here, the brief warm-up we've had is bringing on some reproductive interests around the hatchery (with the fish...that is...).

Our rush darters are spawning. The slackwater darters are coloring up and even the ashy darters are looking like it won't be long until they start spawning! We're expecting a cool-down later this week. Maybe that will slow things down a bit! In any case, it's an exciting time around here....and a busy time! We had hoped to get out into the field this week. Once again, we may need an ark to do so! We're hoping for maybe just a LITTLE bit less rain this year. And, yes, we know we have to careful what we wish for!

To say we're behind on our Newsletter writing is a bit of an understatement! It has been a busy and, to some extent, frustrating field season! Again, an understatement! Any of you trying to do field work in any rivers and streams in our area certainly know what I mean. We've gone from two years of extreme drought to a year of well above average rainfall! I'm sure the water is good for our regional fishes, but it certainly makes it tough on us.

Hi Folks!


CFI is going to have a Fundraiser! Come join us on July 11th, 2009 between Noon and 6:00 at the Shady Grove Meadery near Lake City, TN (about 20 minutes North of Knoxville) for an afternoon of music, food and mead. The mead is produced on site and is wonderful stuff! We have some fantastic music already lined up.......The Hackensaw Boys, Jay Clark, the Livvid Privies and more to be announced soon!

Our hatchery has been a busy place over the past month. I'll give you some of the more important updates in just a bit. Something we are very proud of are the awards and recognition we have recieved from various agencies over the years. Earlier this month, we were very honored to receive a 2008 Recovery Champion Award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Office. CFI was nominated by two different USFWS Regional offices for this award. This is the first time this award has been given between two Regions! This was a big honor for us! We'd certainly like to thank all of those that have continued to support us and would especially like to thank our staff! They make us look good! The award was presented to us in Knoxville by representatives from the Cookeville, TN field office, the Asheville, NC field office and the Atlanta Regional office of the USFWS.

The calendar may say it’s still winter around here, but love is in the air for some of our fishes! Several of the earliest spawners are busily going about the business of making little ones.

For the first time, we are working with sculpins! These fish came from the South Fork Holston River in Virginia. That makes for a fun time assigning species names with confidence (to living ones at any rate). Three species of Cottus could be present there, and the differences are subtle. Probably, the larger ones spawning right now are Cottus carolinae. Normally, knowing exactly what we are working with is a much greater issue. Not necessarily so in this case. These guys are going to be used as host fish for mussel propagation and any of these fish that might end up back in the wild would be returning to their place of origin. So, that aside, we do have a number of them spawning! The one tank where we have made most of our observations (almost certainly C. carolinae) has four females and one male. It appears that he has spawned with all of the females….one at a time. The clutches of eggs are separate, but in very close proximity to one another. We have chosen to leave this male in the tank with his nests and we also left the females to see what would happen. He is vigilant, but not terribly aggressive. He dutifully fans the eggs, mostly with his anal and caudal fins. The females pay little or no attention to him or the eggs once they have spawned.