Shock & Awe In Alabama

Not explosives, but it's the result of out-of-staters collecting fish in Lick Fork of the Paint Rock River yesterday. Tom from Connecticut and friends from California spent the day netting in Lick Fork at my recommendation, and they're in shock from the numbers of fishes, the species diversity, and the size of various fishes in a fairly small stream. I keep telling anyone who will listen that here in the Tennessee Valley we're at ground zero for North American biodiversity, and Tom and his pals will testify to that. We tend to take it for granted around here. But I spent 20 years in Boston, and I know that the diversity is way lower (except for the ocean...). They'll join us today on our last scarlet shiner trip of the year to Limestone Creek. Daniel and Sandi are both graduating, so I'll have to figure out how to keep this size monitoring project going over the summer.