NCDWQ Stream Fish Community Assessment Program

Since 1990 more than 800 sites across the state have been assessed by the wadeable stream fish community assessment program (see map). A majority of the sites are within the Piedmont; the fewest sites are from the Outer Coastal Plain where wadeable freshwater streams are uncommon. Most of the sites are located at bridge crossings or other public accesses. First order creeks and nonwadeable rivers, estuaries, and reservoirs are not monitored. The program compliments other NC DWQ programs such as the Benthic Macroinvertebrate (http://h2o.enr.state.nc.us/esb/BAU.html) and the Ambient Monitoring System (http://h2o.enr.state.nc.us/esb/ams.html) programs which tend to focus monitoring efforts on larger waterbodies and watersheds

Numerous requests are received from state and federal agencies, private consultants, and academic institutions regarding the general distribution of freshwater species in North Carolina or a list of species from a particular county, watershed, or at a specific road crossing.  Data which may be found in the MS Excel spreadsheet files listed below are: river basin, waterbody, station (road crossing), county, latitude and longitude (in decimal degrees), date of collection, NCDWQ's collection number, scientific name, and number of specimens collected.

All data were collected according to NCDWQ standard collection methods (standard methods) and include fish surveys through December 31, 2008.  Scientific names, except for Moxostoma and Scartomyzon, follow Nelson, et. al (2004) and Warren, et al. (2000).  Species distribution maps for the freshwater fishes of North Carolina as of 1991 may be found in Menhinick (1991). Contact Bryn H. Tracy at 919.743.8474 or bryn.tracy@ncmail.net for questions concerning the Stream Fish Community Assessment Program.

References

Menhinick, E. F. 1991.  The freshwater fishes of North Carolina. North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.  Raleigh, NC.

Nelson, J. S., Crossman, E. J., Espinosa-Perez, H., Findley, L. T., Gilbert, C. R., Lea, R. N., and J. D. Williams.  2004.  Common and scientific names of fishes from the United States, Canada, and Mexico.  American Fisheries Society, Special Publication 29, Bethesda, MD.

Warren, M. L., Jr., Burr, B. M., Walsh, S. J., Bart, H. L., Jr., Cashner, R. C., Etnier, D. A., Freeman, B. J., Kuhajda, B. R., Mayden, R. L., Robison, H. W., Ross, S. T., and W. C. Starnes.  2000.  Diversity, distribution, and conservation status of the native freshwater fishes of the southern United States.  Fisheries.  25:  7 - 29.