Fishes of Georgia

Scott McBride, President, of the Coosawattee Watershed Alliance provided the following information about Georgia’s fined finned friends. While not all species can be found in Gilmer County this is good to know information.
GA has 325 native freshwater fishes and is in the top three states for freshwater fish diversity. Many live in the North GA Mountains.

"Fifty-seven fish are state or federally protected. Six are no longer found in Georgia. Conserving those that remain will require watershed-level measures such as protecting streamside forests, preserving natural areas and managing better the run-off from urban and rural land uses."


Whopper of a Web site!

New online atlas details Georgia's freshwater fishes

It’s no fish tale: A new Georgia Museum of Natural History Web site offers the most complete look at Georgia’s freshwater fishes.

“There has never been anything this comprehensive,” said Brett Albanese, a senior aquatic zoologist with the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division’s Nongame Conservation Section.

Fishes of Georgia is the work of Albanese, Museum of Natural History Director Bud Freeman and Carrie Straight, a research professional with the University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology. Behind the lists and maps are thousands of hours spent studying records, sampling streams and inspecting fish in jars.

The results: a Fishes of Georgia Atlas database with more than 159,000 fish records and an easy-to-use Web site that documents the state’s deep lineup of freshwater fish. With some 265 native freshwater fishes, Georgia is in the top three states for freshwater fish diversity.

Fishes of Georgia users will vary from consultants to city planners, conservationists and schoolteachers. Species are listed by scientific and common names. Maps show where each lives by basin. Viewers can even submit records.

Twenty-one species have not been formally described or recognized as new species, though many such as the sicklefin redhorse are well known to ichthyologists like Freeman and Albanese. These fish illustrate cryptic, or hidden, diversity.

Factors contributing to a species being undiscovered vary, Freeman said. “They may be in hard to sample places. They may look exactly the same, at first glance. They may be different only genetically.”

The site lists “new” bass, like Bartram’s bass, an undescribed species in the Savannah River basin, and a separate strain of redeye bass, based on research Freeman spearheaded.

Fifty-seven fish are state or federally protected. Six are no longer found in Georgia. Conserving those that remain will require watershed-level measures such as protecting streamside forests, preserving natural areas and managing better the run-off from urban and rural land uses.

Straight modeled the Web site after the museum’s popular Georgia Wildlife Web. She also avoided flashy features that bank on faster Internet connections. “We tried to accommodate as broad a spectrum of users as we could,” Straight said.

She is still adding maps and photographs. Scientists’ comments also will likely change the information, which includes common coastal fishes and 23 non-native species.

The project was funded by the museum, which is part of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at UGA, Georgia DNR’s Nongame Conservation Section and a State Wildlife Grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The atlas, a priority in Georgia’s Wildlife Action Plan, is a key component of a larger effort to publish a comprehensive book on the state’s fish fauna. But keeping the atlas up-to-date is a priority for the authors. Each expects Fishes of Georgia to spur more research and understanding of the state’s fishes.

Scott McBride
Coosawattee Watershed Alliance
PO Box 252 • East Ellijay GA 30536
http://www.coosawatteewatershedalliance.org/
scottmcbride1@hotmail.com
706-669-4274