Silent Streams and Spoken Dreams
By Ryan Adkins
It is the hope and work of J.R. Shute and Pat Rakes to bring about great changes in the American Southeast. These modern day Noah’s of Conservation Fisheries, Inc. (CFI) are “trying to keep some of the rarest species (of fish) alive.”1 This is no easy task in an area of the country that is rich with freshwater animals, “nearly half the 573 animals on the endangered list are freshwater species.”1 A few of the fish aboard the CFI Ark include the diamond darter, the Conasauga logperch, and the highly endangered Alabama Sturgeon. The fish are threatened by “sediments from human activities”1, chemicals, pollution, and the very fact that they are of “no economic importance.”1 It is for this reason that Shute and Rakes are relocating these endangered fish to a brick warehouse in Tennessee. This facility is filled with 600 aquariums and a “maze of pipes”1 that flood the tanks with water daily. This is a difficult task that they have undertaken but their goal is “to have seed stock ready to restore the fish to a river, if and when society restores that river to its clean, free-flowing state.”1 These two determined men will stop at nothing to see this dream become a reality.
What a remarkable story of dedication through conservation! Their methods used for conserving have undoubtedly saved thousands of fish and many entire species from extinction. However, by removing the fish from the polluted streams and rivers they are still only solving half of the problem. While temporarily safe in their new homes, the rushing rivers are still contaminated and will continue to be so until something is changed. I suggest taking a proactive approach to cleaning up the environment that the fish inhabit. This goes much further than protests, activism, and service projects. As Theresa Woody puts it “Complex environmental problems often require complex solutions; complex solutions call for an integrated approach, tying together science, resource management, and politics.”2 This is the solution that I call for in this situation, a blending together of lobbying to congress, legal litigation, and environmental education. The following articles show how this is done and how difficult and time consuming this can be.
Like the struggles that face CFI, Catostomids, more commonly known as Suckers, are facing similar problems due to “migration barriers, flow regulation, environmental contamination, habitat degradation, and exploitation.”3 In addition, these fish are thought to be of “little social or ecological value”3 therefore they too lack the funding and a lobbying group they need. Therefore, the authors of this article from Biological Conservation recommend increasing “outreach and education.”3 “Similarly, any legislation or policy that directly reduces alterations to critical habitats or water quality degradation would also directly benefit suckers.”3 A great example of this plan in action is the Sierra Club and their contributions in restoring the Kissimmee River in Florida.
Journal of the North American Benthological Society reports that “the Sierra Club is currently developing a long-term conservation agenda and funding strategy based on the ecoregion well known to ecologists.”2 Additionally, team work and a multi-faced approach has helped this the “largest grassroots environmental organization in the United States”2 achieve enormous success, largely being that of the “Save Our Everglades”2 program. This inspirational story gives hope to the thousands of environmentalists fighting the governmental red tape. It shows how difficult it is to obtain funding and support, but also the priceless rewards that can be attained through persistence and applied knowledge.
Noah’s Ark photo taken from Solarnavigator.net
Alabama Sturgeon photo taken from Outdooralabama.com
Everglades photo taken from Jazzhostels.com
1. Chadwick, D. (2010). Silent Streams Retrieved August 30, 2010, from National Geographic Web site: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/04/freshwater-species/chadwick-text
2. Woody, T. (1993). Grassroots in action: the Sierra Club’s Role in the campaign to restore the Kissimmee River Retrieved August 30, 2010, from http://links.jstor.org/sici?
3. Cooke, S., Bunt, C., Hamilton, S., Jennings, C., Pearson, M., Cooperman, M., and Markle, D. (2004). Threats, conservation strategies, and prognosis for suckers (Catostomidae) in North America: insights from regional case studies of a diverse family of non-game fishes. Retrieved August 30, 2010, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V5X-4CSG4FG-1&_user=456938&_coverDate=02%2F28%2F2005&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000021830&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=456938&md5=7dc00e46784bec8345a597353bb4f17e&searchtype=a
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