Mark Binkley showed me a place in kentucky to collect southern red
belly dace (SRBD). It was a small creek that drained into a much
larger creek. In case you're not aware, SRBD like small, shallow
creeks. Mark and I took a few fish and went home. In the lower reach
of the creek that was suitable for SRBD, there were probably a couple
of hundred fish.
I went back a few weeks later to collect a few more fish, only to find
a guy loading his seine into his pickup truck. There were no SRBD left
in the small creek. None. I'm pretty sure they were collected for
bait because there were no minoow fish left in the creek-in-all.
Now, I know the creek better and I know that spring floods probably
have washed more SRBD down stream and I'm pretty sure that the creek
has been repopulated by now, but if it had been an uncommon fish,
there would be no source to repopulate it.
Geoff
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