We Found 2 Blacknosed Dace In The Flint River System

Taito and I went out yesterday to look for blacknosed dace for the Chernoff lab at Wesleyan. It turns out that they already have fish from Blue Spring in the Paint Rock system, because I had told Mike Sandel about that spot two months ago without knowing why he and Phil Harris at Tuscaloosa wanted the fish. So, the Chernoff people asked if I could get fish from the Flint system. The one really good place I know for Flint dace is in Acuff Spring. But when we went there, it was posted No Trespassing. I guess the homeowner's association finally figured out that other people were interested in the spring which is now part of a park, and aren't especially open about it(!). So, we seined in a nearby creek connected to that spring run. We didn't find any dace, but we did find a surprising number of flame chubs. I kept a few just to examine the gills for parasites in the near future. Our next stop was the junction of Brier Fork with the main stem of the Flint at the Winchester Road bridge. I hadn't been there for a few years, and I figured that it might work even though it's a river rather than a spring run. We actually netted one YOY, along with large numbers of darters and stonerollers. Dave Webster of the TVA was also there with another guy, doing an ongoing IBI survey. He pointed out how much periphyton (algae) was growing on the substrate, which is definitely worse than before. Housing developments have hugely expanded just upstream from this site, and the effects weren't subtle. The water is still clear, but creeping eutrophication is evident. So we were off to Mountain Fork, where I haven't been for a while either. We caught lots of fish there too, but again only one YOY dace. So, that's what I'll send them, one fish from each of two locations. I hope that works for their purposes. Now it's clear to me that the Paint Rock system is in better shape with less new housing pressure.