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The Wildlife Diversity Program recently partnered with the University of Oklahoma's Dr. Bill Matthews and Dr. Edie Marsh-Matthews to learn more about the distribution and status of fish in four river systems in southeastern Oklahoma.
Known hot spots for aquatic diversity, the Clear Boggy, Muddy Boggy, Kiamichi, and the Little River were the focus of an extensive two-year survey of southeastern Oklahoma fish populations. From 2014 to 2016, Matthews, Marsh-Matthews, graduate student Zach Zbinden and his field team surveyed 151 sites using 15-foot long nets, or seines.
Close to 90 species of fish were documented in the survey, including 11 species considered to be of greatest conservation need like the goldstripe darter. Species like the leopard darter and pallid shiner were found to be scarce across the region, but four species of greatest conservation need, the blackspot shiner, Ouachita Mountain shiner, rocky shiner and orangebelly darter, appear to have stable populations in the surveyed river ways.
After analyzing the survey data, Matthews made 12 recommendations for future management of these fish communities. In addition to providing insight for future monitoring efforts, Matthews suggested that managing sites with a high number of species may help protect species of greatest conservation need because species-rich sites often accommodated multiple species of greatest conservation need.
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