Researchers from Penn State believe they have discovered a new subspecies of fish in the Susquehanna River.
The team, working with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, reported that a variety of the logperch found in the Susquehanna and its tributaries differs substantially from other varieties, findings they determined by making 18 measurements on thousands of specimens. The findings of the research team can be read here.
This new Chesapeake logperch subspecies has been identified as a yellow- to olive-colored fish in the darter family, with dark stripes “often arrayed in zebra fashion,” according to a post made by Penn State. The post adds that the fish is “typically just a few inches long, with a small mouth and a short, conical snout. It is believed to only ever have inhabited the lower drainages of the Susquehanna and Potomac rivers, and it has not been seen in the Potomac since the late 1930s.”
“We concluded that the Chesapeake logperch found in the lower Susquehanna River and a few of its tributaries is not the same as closely related fish found in the other drainages,” said Jay Stauffer, a professor of ichthyology at Penn State and leader of the research team, in the post. “That makes our project to rescue and reintroduce the fish into the river and tributaries even more urgent.”
The Chesapeake logperch is believed to be endangered, with its numbers threatened from both pollution and predation by invasive fish species such as the northern snakehead and flathead catfish.
However, while listen on endangered species lists in both Pennsylvania and Maryland, Stauffer believes the adding the Chesapeake logperch to the federal endangered species list would cause problems for planned development to the Chesapeake Bay.
Instead, Stauffer said in the post that he hoped plans to reintroduce the Chesapeake logperch to “its original distribution in the Susquehanna River by culturing and translocating it and reintroducing it to its native habitat. But it is going to take some more time and perhaps more introductions.”
“To try to prevent a species from being federally listed is pretty unique,” Stauffer said.
To read the full post, visit the Penn State website here.
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June 27, 2023 at 11:49PM
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Penn State research team discovers unique subspecies of fish in Susquehanna River - PennLive
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