9 replies to this topic

[Michael Wolfe]

This morning a small group of us had the chance to experience an interesting piece of ichthyohistory. The following is from the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History 1876by David Starr Jordan:

The material on which the present paper is based was obtained by the writer and his assistant, Mr. Charles H. Gilbert, during the past summer (1876), ... a week's seining in the South Fork of the Ocmulgee River at Flat Rock, Dekalb Co., Georgia...

Our collections in this stream were made in the South Fork, or South River, at Flat Shoals (Flat Rock P. O.), in Dekalb Co., some 16 miles south-east of Atlanta. At this point the river flows down an inclined plane on a bed of granite, and as its banks have been cleared in the immediate neighborhood of the w Shoals," it offers excellent advantages for small seining. Our work was confined to one point, as the river is thickly wooded above and below, and therefore full of snags.

And we were able to head out this morning to do the same thing, at the same spot 136 years later!

We met at a county park area that has a jogging and bike trail right by the river, and collected at the shoals, same as D.S.Jordan did the summer of 1876! Right here in the ATL we saw 18 species (at least; a couple f the small shiners have me looking in books), in a river that by many is considered by many as nothing but urban run off. We had Brett and Lucas from the DNR, and Will (Brett's son) and NANFAns Alejandro, Camm and myself.


Our fish lists includes:

Campostoma pauciradii Bluefin Stoneroller
Cyprinella callisema Ocmulgee Shiner

Cyprinella lutrensis Red Shiner (not native to this drainage)

Cyprinella xaenura Altamaha Shiner

Hybopsis rubrifrons Rosyface Chub
Nocomis leptocephalus Bluehead Chub
Notenigonus crysoleucas Golden Shiner

Notropis hudsonius Spottail Shiner
Notropis lutipinis Yellowfin Shiner
Moxostoma collapsum Notchlip Redhorse

Moxostoma sp Jumprock (Striped or Brassy I will do some ray and scale counts tonight)

Ameriurus brunneus Snail Bullhead

Gambusia
Lepomis auritus Redbreast Sunfish
Lepomis machrochirus Bluegill Sunfish
Lepomis microlophus Redear Sunfish
Etheostoma inscriptum Turquoise Darter

Percina nigrofaciata Blackbanded Darter

[Michael Wolfe]

And these are the unidentified minnow guys if anyone wants to take a guess. Remember we are in the Ocmulgee Drainage in this Southeastern corner of Atlanta.

[Michael Wolfe]

Thanks for the comments on the photos...

Nate, you did not miss it, I just didn't talk about it, but I do have a listing of what Jordan caught (16 species in all). Brett and I are going to work on a short article discussing the differences, but there was a lot of overlap. He caught Warmouth and Creek Chubsucker which we did not (and wish we had). And he did not catch Red Shiners or Gambusia (wish we hadn't). But we did get all of the 4 species that he described from that trip (Altamaha, Ocmulgee, Rosyface and Snail Bullhead), so that was a real treat.

And I did not actually use the shocker. Lucas was in charge of that tool. I have worked with one before and yeah, it can make a big difference. And hey, I did get shocked, so that's something.

[Michael Wolfe]

Lots of new news from the South River... first, we had a great morning today... got a chance to talk to about 75 people that were meeting there to start a paddling trip down the river.

Kathy, Alejandro, Camm and I set up a stream side aquarium and filled it full of Ocmuglee shiners, spottail shiners, jumprock, redbreast and blugill, balckbanded darters and turquoise darters and snail bullhead cats.

We talked to the folks that were interested about the fish, handed out NANFA brochures, and had a good time.

Then the meeting organizers got all 75 people gathered around the tank and I gave a short talk about NANFA and about David Starr Jordan and his visit to this same exact piece of the river in 1876. We talked about the Ocmulgee Shiners and Snail Bullheads that were discovered and described here, and how the Ocmulgee is a Georgia endemic, found no where else in the world. Then, Camm and Alejandro seined the river right there in front of the group and up on the bank they came up with a seine full of flipping shiner life... and the oohs and aaahhs were easy to hear.

I think we had a great impact, on some folks that were obviously interested in the river... and now maybe interested in the fishes.

[Michael Wolfe]

Check out this issue of the Georgia Nongame News... this picture at the top is by yours truly and the article at the end talks about our original trip (with DNR representatives) to South River. It also has a link that connects you to an article about our trip and David Starr Jordan's trip 136 years earlier.

http://content.govde...gd/GADNR-52f88b

That is Camm's hat manning the brail in the rapids in the photo!