Jim Brewer of the Daily Progress reports that fish hatcheries can save time and money by producing sterile trout that grow bigger faster. He also states the benefits of this manipulation.

An additional benefit is that there is no danger of a stocked species of trout establishing a population or crossbreeding with any wild trout. In numerous streams across Virginia we now have wild brook trout, wild rainbows and wild brown trout that are doing quite nicely. Stocking sterile fish in the streams holding wild populations would increase the recreational opportunities for anglers while reducing pressure on wild populations and with no threat to the wild trout fishery.

Read more here.

Tom Remington

Eric Sharp, outdoor writer for Free Press, shares with readers about two efforts underway to bring kids into the world of fishing, kayaking and canoing. The first is Project Fish and the other is called Physh Ed, where physical education teachers teach kids about fishing, kayaking and canoing in school.

Check out his article and learn more about what you can do to get a kid out fishing.

Tom Remington

Last month I reported that officials had expanded their study of unknown fish kills from the Shenandoah River in Virginia. Since 2005 mainly smallmouth bass and red breast sunfish have been dying in these waters and so far officials with the Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Inland Game and Fisheries have no explanation. More dead fish has caused them to expand their study area to now include the Cowpasture, Maury and upper James rivers.

In addition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been collecting water samples.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency collected sediment samples in late May to test for toxicity and estrogen-related chemicals in some of the rivers. Water samples have been collected from the affected rivers to be tested for known fish viruses. Weekly and continuous water quality monitoring is still under way, and the task force remains in contact with counterparts in West Virginia as they investigate similar fish kills in the Potomac River system.

See related stories about the Potomac watershed he/she fish problems here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Over the past three weeks report of fish kills in these areas is on the rise. Officials are also working closely with W. Virginia as similar fish kills are also showing up in their waters.

Officials are asking for help from residents and fishermen.

The task force encourages the public to provide any information on the location, number and type of fish found dead or sick in the Shenandoah, Cowpasture and James river systems. Distressed fish are found mainly in eddies and shallow areas away from the main current.

Anyone with information is asked to call the DEQ regional office in Harrisonburg at (540) 574-7800, or toll-free in Virginia at 1-800-592-5482. Information also can be emailed to fishreports@deq.virginia.gov. Detailed information about the fish kills is available on the DEQ website at www.deq.virginia.gov.

Tom Remington

I’ve followed for you the story of the unexplained fish kills in the Shenandoah River. Now, similar fish deaths are showing up in the James River, upstream from Buchanan and the lower Cowpasture River, downstream from Route 39.

There are similarities between the two unexplained fish kills but scientists have yet to make a link nor have they determined what is killing fish in the Shenandoah River.

Read more about the latest bodies of water affected by sick fish.

Tom Remington

Since 2004 fish biologists have been trying to determine what is killing fish in the Shenandoah River. They don’t even know if it’s environmental or biological. For some time now, people have been finding above normal rates of fish kills along the river including the South River. Testing and monitoring have been ongoing and so far nothing has been determined.

“We have these passive samplers which are virtual fish, which means they would absorb anything a fish would absorb or be exposed to,” said Steve Reeser, a biologist. “We had those in the river back in March.”

Authorities are asking people who find dead or dying fish to contact the Department of Environmental Quality or Game and Inland Fisheries.

You can find other articles on this event by following this link and scrolling through the articles.

Tom Remington

From DA Newsroom.

There will be a public meeting on May 8 to discuss the problems of intersex fish and fish-kill instances in the south branch of the Potomac River. The meeting will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. at Moorefield Middle School.
U.S. Geological Survey and various sponsors will give presentations throughout the meeting. Following the meeting, citizens will have the opportunity to speak with representatives about current investigations during an open house session.
Intersex fish exhibit both male and female characteristics, and they have been found among the high number of fish kills in the rivers.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Natural Resources and the Potomac Water Watch are sponsoring the meeting.

The Shenandoah River that runs through Virginia has had problems in the past several years with unexplained fish kills, higher than what scientists would consider normal. This spring an all out effort will be underway to try to find a reason, something that has eluded scientists to this point.

Usually fish kills begin in March. Officials have ruled out any of the obvious reasons for the kills, like toxic spills, etc.

According to the Washington Times, problems have persisted.

Last spring, northern hogsuckers died in the mainstream Shenandoah River, and smallmouth bass and sunfish died in the North Fork of the Shenandoah and in the South River. The year before, 80 percent of the smallmouth bass and redbreast sunfish died in the South Fork, and a similar kill occurred on the North Fork in 2004.
There was a kill in December on the main branch of the Shenandoah that affected several hundred fish, mostly hogsuckers.

Even though officials have no explanations they say that many of the fish bore lesions and some had male and female sex organs.

Many bore lesions that resembled cigar burns, and some had males and female characteristics.

I wonder if scientists, particularly in the same region, ever talk to each other and compare notes? I’m not a scientist but I got half a brain. Fish are dying in the Shenandoah River which flows into the Potomac River. Scientists have already determined, although they don’t seem to want to tell anyone about it, that fish in the Potomac watershed are suffering as the result of chemical pollution.

More than one study has shown that estrogen leached into the watershed from natural and man made sources, is causing male fish to grown female sex organs. These same “endocrine disrupters” are present in the drinking water all around the Potomac River watershed area.

It will be interesting to follow this event and see what explanations scientists have and whether or not the same problem is responsible for both fish kills. One has to also ask how much more of this disturbing affect people will have to endure before officials begin to actually do something about it.

Tom Remington

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The future of the East’s premier native trout is looking up, thanks to a coalition of state and federal agencies, academic institutions and conservation organizations.

The Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture today released a first-of-its-kind conservation strategy to restore healthy, fishable populations of eastern brook trout throughout their eastern native range. The Conservation Strategy is based on the status and threats information contained in the Joint Venture’s initial report, which was issued in May 2006.

The 2006 report found that only 5% of historical brook trout habitat remains intact. Populations have been eliminated or greatly reduced in almost half of the areas that historically supported brook trout. Poor land management practices are responsible for the majority of this decline.

“Once the partnership recognized the threats facing brook trout within its historic eastern range, we developed regional and range-wide strategies to take swift and deliberate steps to conserve strong populations and restore weaker ones,” said Steve Perry, Inland Fisheries Division Chief for the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department and Chair of the Joint Venture. “We created a model for fish conservation – a large-scale, habitat-focused conservation strategy for a species at risk. This strategy provides us with a roadmap to significantly improve brook trout populations by 2025.”

The report contains a set of aggressive range-wide and regional targets, including protection of highest quality habitat, improvement of 30% of damaged brook trout watersheds, and reintroduction of brook trout to 10% of those watersheds where they have disappeared. Using the 2006 status and threats data as a baseline, the Joint Venture will evaluate progress toward these targets at five year intervals.

In conjunction with the range-wide strategy released today, each of the Joint Venture states is developing a specialized plan based on that state’s existing brook trout populations and dominant threats. Through these plans, the states will prioritize protection and restoration efforts to meet the collective targets outlined above. Projects will address priority needs in each state, ranging from restoring streamside habitat in Georgia to cleaning up pollution from abandoned coal mines in Pennsylvania, to fixing road culverts to improve brook trout passage in Maine.

“The significance of these state efforts really can’t be overstated,” said Gary Berti, Eastern Brook Trout Campaign Coordinator for Trout Unlimited and the Joint Venture’s Communications Chair. “They are the ones who will do the hard work to make this range-wide plan a reality. And they will need support from conservation groups, watershed associations, landowners, businesses, educators, citizens and policy-makers at all levels to accomplish the ambitious goals laid out in this strategy.”

The Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture partnership began in 2004 as a pilot project under the National Fish Habitat Action Plan. Active partners include fish and wildlife agencies from 17 states, federal agencies, conservation organizations and academic institutions. The Joint Venture is seeking additional partners and support to assist in the protection and restoration of brook trout habitat.

Brook trout are the only trout native to the streams and rivers of the eastern United States. Once prolific throughout their historical range, brook trout populations have declined as land use changes have altered their habitat. These fish survive in only the coldest and cleanest water, and they serve as excellent indicators of the health of the watersheds they inhabit.

For more information on the range-wide eastern brook trout conservation strategy and state-specific plans, please visit http://www.easternbrooktrout.net.

This press release was sent to me by the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department.

Tom Remington

Fish biologists are scrambling around to get their gear together long before the onset of the spring fishing season in the Shenandoah River watershed area. The river has seen an unusually high amount of fish kill in recent months leaving biologists scratching their heads as they have yet to find any obvious reasons. The governor has even appropriated some emergency funds in hopes to get to the bottom of the problem.

According to the News Leader, a task force will be getting their gear in place by February. This gear will be used in a number of ways.

“We want to have our gear in the water by early February,” said Don Kain, a conservation specialist with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality who also co-chairs the task force.

The gear in this case is a collection of water quality monitors that will record and transmit real-time measurements of possible culprits in fish mortalities, like swings in water temperature, acidity, ammonia content and dissolved oxygen.

Reese Voshell Jr., a researcher at Virginia Tech, presented slides of tiny river creatures, such as water penny snails and caddis flies. Spikes in shell erosion, parasites and other immune deficiencies serve as early-warning systems for fish health, he said.

The collection of data is of utmost importance in order to learn what is causing the mortality of the fish. What is also puzzling scientists is that the kill seems to have been focused so far on just two species of fish – smallmouth bass and sunfish.

Tom Remington

This time it’s hogsucker fish that are showing up dead in parts of the Shenandoah River in Virginia. Last October I reported to you that 80% of the smallmouth bass and sunfish have been killed in the South Fork region and authorities were scrambling around to find out why. Governor Kaine was releasing more money in the effort.

Now, hogsuckers are coming up dead and this has really left scientists scratching there heads. They have never had a die-off in the fall or winter months. DNR Online tells it this way.

Kills in the Shenandoah have occurred in 2004, 2005 and 2006, but never in the fall and winter months, according to Don Kain, of the Shenandoah River Fish Kill Task Force.

“The timing of this is definitely surprising,” he said. “Based on what we had seen in the past, we did not expect this to happen.”

Finding fish die-offs during this time of the year is puzzling.

Kain said the time of year isn’t the only surprising element to the latest kill.

“They just don’t fit typical fish-kill patterns,” he said. “If it were a toxic or environmental cause, I would expect an across the board kill.”

Finding only one type of fish surprises researchers.

“We’re stumped,” Kain said.

The DNR is asking citizens to report anything unusual that might help them in the investigation.

Tom Remington

The south fork of the Shenandoah River in Virginia has seen 80 percent of the bass and sunfish killed in recent years and scientists don’t know why. Governor Kaine announced the release of another $150,000 from the emergency fund to continue studying the causes. Research and studies are being conducted by a state task force involving many entities.

The task force, which includes state and federal agencies, universities and community groups, is conducting one of the most comprehensive studies of a watershed within Virginia. The task force was established by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries in July 2005 after fish kills in the South Fork of the Shenandoah River caused the loss of about 80 percent of the adult smallmouth bass and redbreast sunfish, and damaged the recreational and tourism industries in the Shenandoah Valley.

The governor’s authorization of the use of Virginia Environmental Emergency Response Funds for up to $150,000 will provide funding needed to continue research through early 2007. The task force currently is funded through a $200,000 direct appropriation.

The ongoing death of these fish leaves many to question what is causing it. As a result, this has had a negative effect on the local tourism throughout the river valley.

A study by experts at James Madison University estimated that last summer’s fish kill in the Shenandoah River resulted in $700,000 in lost retail income. Despite extensive water quality and fish monitoring, the DEQ and DGIF investigation has not yet yielded an explanation for the fish kills

Tom Remington

The snakehead or walking fish, was introduced somehow into the Potomac River watershed some time ago. At that time, fish biologists didn’t know what the walking fish would do to other native or not-so-native species. They feared the worst and got something a little less drastic, so far.

National Georgraphic covers the story of the walking fish and how it has affected the Potomac River watershed area. It looks ahead in hopes of learning more about what the future holds for this fish and other competitive species, including the smallmouth bass.

Tom Remington