Newsletter: November 2022

Happy Fall From Conservation Fisheries!

Current Spring Room being converted into the future Green Room.

As our busy season comes to an end, the CFI Staff have been gearing up for our winter projects. Our priorities for the next few months include:

• Swapping our current Green Room (100 sq. ft.) to our current Spring Room (170 sq. ft) to increase the amount of live food cultures that we can maintain

• Eliminate the remaining Hydra in the facility by removing fish from infected recirculating systems before bleaching and rebuilding the system

• Rebuilding several recirculating systems with standardized and updated plumbing techniques

Say Hello to our Newest Fish and Team Members

A Leopard Darter in it’s new home in the CFI Main Hatchery

In September we welcomed the Leopard Darter, Percina pantherina, into the hatchery. This species is our first ever fish resident from Oklahoma, and we are developing propagation protocols for the USFWS.

Per the USFWS, this species is listed as Threatened per the Endangered Species Act. We are developing propagation protocols for future restoration efforts of this species.

Our newest staff members are Curt Brewer and Christo Bradstock.

Christo holding a Snail Darter, Percina tanasi

Curt had been a CFI Volunteer since December 2021 and was officially brought on as a part-time staff member in September. He has recently graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville with a degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences.

Christo is currently a student at Harper Adams University in Newport, United Kingdom. As a part of his degree requirements he must spend one year with a Placement organization to obtain skills in his preferred field of interest. Christo joined us as an intern at the beginning of October and will be here until August of 2023.

Our newest CFI Volunteers are Alex Haston and Cole Silverman.

Alex and Cole are both students at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville earning their degrees in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences. They have both been excellent additions to our team and we look forward to continuing to teach them about the intricacies of working in a conservation hatchery and about how our restoration work impacts imperiled freshwater fishes.

Please visit our Meet the Team page for more information about the dedicated folks who work here!

Ending Projects

This is the time of the year where, after releasing or transferring most of our fish, some of our projects have come to an end. Those projects include:

Banded Sculpin photographed by Derek Wheaton

• Banded Sculpin for population restoration in the Cheoah River, North Carolina

• Yellowcheek Darters for propagation protocols

• Crystal Darters for propagation protocols as a surrogate species for the Diamond Darter

• Blotched Chubs as mussel hosts for the Aquatic Wildlife Conservation Center in Virginia

• Ashy Darter restoration to the Tellico River, Tennessee

• Okaloosa Darters for population restoration Okaloosa County, Florida

While this list of ended projects may make it sound like the hatchery is empty, don't be fooled! We have several long-term projects that are now allocated to more space in the hatchery in addition to a few new long-term projects that we are starting. With all of this considered, the hatchery is at maximum capacity.

Due to the hatchery being at maximum capacity, we are looking forward to our Facility Expansion! To learn more about the expansion or to donate to our Expansion Fund, please view our Facility Expansion page.

Education and Outreach

Snail Darter Delisting Celebration and Yellowfin Madtom Release at Seven Islands State Park

Martha Williams, Director of USFWS, and a young friend release Yellowfin Madtoms at the Snail Darter Delisting Celebration

On October 4th we had the great honor of attending the Snail Darter Delisting Celebration at Seven Islands State Park. At the end of the event, we held a public release of our Yellowfin Madtoms into the French Broad River. As the first Yellowfin Madtoms released into this section of the French Broad we are hoping to expand their geographical range, and, if we are successful, hope to see the Yellowfin Madtom also taken off of the Endangered Species List in the future. Attendees of the release included partners from the USFWS, TVA, TWRA, and many more who we were delighted to share this important milestone with.

Partnership with Clayton Bradley Academy in Maryville, TN.

Conservation Fisheries biologists attended the CBA Pistol Creek Day on October 17th, 2022. We seined in Pistol Creek to show 8th grade students the freshwater biodiversity that is in their backyards (and on their school grounds!). Afterwards we were invited to stay and watch the highschoolers compete in a carboard boat race!

CBA Key Club, the school's service club for high school students, came out to the hatchery in September to help out with a few projects. Students made assembly lines to sanitize tanks, helped organize and standardize plumbing parts, and assisted in repairing equipment used during breeding season. They accomplished several days worth of work in just three hours, and we couldn't be more thankful for their help!

Big Give - Knoxville

We are participating again in Knoxville's Big Give on Giving Tuesday, November 29th, 2022. We will send out a more detailed newsletter just for this event, but in the meantime, please consider supporting Conservation Fisheries this Giving Season.

We’re Currently Accepting Applications for Winter Volunteers

Our Winter Season is from December 2022-February 2023, and we're looking for volunteers who can consistently commit 2-3 days per week for 2-5 hours per day during the hours of 9am-4pm. More details can be found on this flyer or on our Volunteer page.

As always, thank you all for your support for us and the important restoration work we do to preserve freshwater biodiversity.

— The CFI Team