Re: NANFA-- Probability of Dead Stuff

Bruce Stallsmith (fundulus_at_hotmail.com)
Sat, 09 Sep 2000 15:28:08 EDT

I apologize, J.R., for maybe not phrasing myself clearly, I would agree that
encroaching development _is_ the big threat, and probably in the Little
River too (I bet there aren't many blue shiners down stream from the edge of
the National Monument where we found them, as the the river is swallowed up
by the Weiss Reservoir formed by damning the Coosa). I think that the blue
shiners being relatively abundant (a very loose term) in the area of the
Conasauga where we found them is the sheerest good luck. I don't think it's
a stable situation, even though I admittedly don't know their ecology in any
detail.

--Bruce "Hooray for Cyprinella!" Stallsmith
witnessing more Destruction in Dixie

>From: Noturus_at_aol.com
>Reply-To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
>To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
>Subject: Re: NANFA-- Probability of Dead Stuff
>Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2000 09:51:04 EDT
>
>In a message dated 9/8/00 6:42:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>fundulus_at_hotmail.com writes:
>
><< The Conasauga River in
> Tennessee is reputed to be the last real stronghold of the blue shiner,
> Cyprinella caerulea, a federally threatened species. But the Conasauga
>runs
> through a moderately populated area with housing developments right along
> it, which implies pressures on the river system. (Admittedly we found
>blue
> shiners in the Little River in Alabama too, a more remote area.) >>
>
>But....bear in mind that the blue shiners decline VERY quickly outside of
>the
>Cherokee forest and this is due in large to those houses and farms that
>line
>the river down there. Also, they have all but been eliminated from most of
>their (once relatively large) range with the exceptions of the upper
>Conasauga and Little River (both somewhat protected). Interactions with
>humans have definitely not favored rare, sensitive, aquatic species.
>
>J.R.

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