A Multiagency Effort Aims to Restore a Rare Fish

The sicklefin redhorse raced upstream, her belly bulging with eggs. Her curved, red-tipped dorsal fin flashed as she wove around rocks, pushing constantly against the current.

Little did she know how many people sought her.

The sicklefin, once vital to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, lives only in the big mountain rivers of western North Carolina and northern Georgia.

In the 1970s and '80s, it almost disappeared.

Now, biologists from the Tennessee Valley Authority, along with their federal, state, Tribal and nonprofit partners, scan streams each spring on foot and by boat.

When they find sicklefin, they collect data, eggs and milt so they can release young fish into the wild.

This large-scale restoration effort stretches back to 2007 – and it will continue until the fish have reached a population that swims, spawns and thrives in these waters.

“Sicklefin should do that soon,” Dave Matthews, TVA aquatic zoologist, said. “But it's been a long, long, long process to get that to work.”

Luke Etchison, head of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission sicklefin team, and Dave Matthews, TVA aquatic zoologist and long-time sicklefin restoration advocate, prepare a fyke net in North Carolina.

Asking Questions

The process of bringing sicklefin back began with questions.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians – who call the fish ugidatli, or ‘it has a feather’ – used to celebrate the spring sicklefin migration. They once depended on the sicklefin and other large redhorse fish for food, but that connection has been lost.

And to the rest of the world, the fish was mostly a mystery.

Scientists knew that, like the six other redhorse sucker species, sicklefin are 2-foot-long bottom feeders. Their rounded mouths look as if they’re saying, "Oh."

They knew that sicklefin migrate, swimming upstream each spring to spawn in Tennessee River tributaries and spend their juvenile years in the shelter of deep river pools and TVA reservoirs.

Scientists also knew sicklefin help mussels such as the endangered Appalachian elktoe move upriver and downriver, according to North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission’s Chantelle Rondel.

But they didn’t know other key facts.

Where, when and in what conditions did sicklefin redhorse spawn?

What was the best way to catch, monitor, raise, tag and reintroduce them to the wild?

And how would they do long-term once released?

“We’re never afraid to say we don’t know” Matthews said.

TVA works with partners in North Carolina and Georgia to locate, monitor and restore sicklefin redhorse to its native waters.

Answering Questions

Enter the Sicklefin Redhorse Working Group.

TVA has provided monitoring support since 2007 and funding since 2016 to support the partnership efforts in Georgia and North Carolina.

The goal is to prevent the sicklefin – a candidate for the Threatened and Endangered Species list – from being listed through a Candidate Conservation Agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“Partnerships are vital to implement conservation projects like this,” Rebecca Hayden, TVA Natural Resources director, said. “We all bring resources to the table to make the project a success.”

The Working Group has learned many things.

For one, fish are fickle.

“You can’t predict spawning or migration, so you try to span times,” Tiffany Penland, who leads the Georgia Department of Natural Resources sicklefin crew, said.

Migration might depend on water temperature, flow, or hours of daylight, which makes it hard to schedule sampling, Matthews said.

Another thing – the net makes a big difference.  

“Fyke nets have a deep pocket,” Jessica Giddens, TVA aquatic zoologist, said.

Fyke net wings span the river and funnel fish into a pocket chute, so fish have space to swim until biologists reach them.

And challenges remain. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, for example, paused sicklefin releases until key river habitat is restored.

Members left the meeting with a plan – and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Warm Springs Hatchery was on call to collect fertilized fish eggs.

“We're just going to be doing what the sicklefin want us to do,” said Luke Etchison, who heads up the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission crew.

Devin Rambo, Georgia Department of Natural Resources wildlife technician, prepares the scale for weighing sicklefin redhorse.

Field Work

For five weeks in spring, scientists waded into the big rivers of the Southern Appalachians – the Hiwassee, Peachtree, Valley, Nottely, Tuckasegee and Little Tennessee.

“Everything’s running fast and early,” Penland said. Giddens joined her crew to sample two sites on Brasstown Creek, part of North Georgia’s Hiwassee River system.

Devin Rambo, Georgia Department of Natural Resources wildlife technician, looped a hanging net scale on a boxelder tree branch.

Giddens and Penland stood ready with pole nets. Georgia’s Lexi Bryan, database technician, and Talia Levine, wildlife biologist, gently lifted the net where several sicklefin waited.

They worked each fish up in a well-practiced routine.

Biologists looked at tubercules – little bumps on breeding males. They weighed and measured the fish’s length, assessed its physical health and breeding condition, then scanned it for a tag.

“We're using Passive Integrative Transponders, or PIT tags. They're the size of a grain of rice, like a pet tag,” Matthews explained.

Hatchery-raised fish get PIT tags, as do wild fish when they’re caught. Underwater antennas installed across river bottoms scan them.

“When the fish passes over that antenna, it communicates a string of numbers,” Rambo, who manages the sicklefin database, said.

The information tells biologists when, where and which fish move.

On this day, the first two sicklefin were recaptured males. But the third fish had no tag.  

“He’s a new boy,” Rambo said. “And he’s small.”

The fish gleamed as the crew slipped him from the scale to the measuring board before tagging and releasing him.

“So far this week we got 28 sicklefin, with 15 recaptures,” Penland said. “That’s good and bad.” 

“It’s good because it means (fish we released) are surviving,” Rambo said.

“But the more fish you recapture might suggest that it's a smaller population,” Penland said. “Or it could just be because ... this is the same group that migrates back. They're so long lived.”

Sicklefin redhorse live to about 22 years old, beginning to reproduce at ages 7 or 8.

Over time, biologists hope to net more untagged fish of all ages to show breeding in the wild.

“A few new populations that could reproduce and sustain themselves – that would be success,” Matthews said. “It's going to take a while for us to see that. It kind of depends on the fish.”

Jessica Giddens and Lexi Bryan, Georgia Department of Natural Resources database technician, handle a golden redhorse, a relative of the sicklefin that they seek.

Toward a fishy future

While sunny skies made for good sampling in Georgia, dry months lowered North Carolina’s rivers.

TVA aquatic zoologists Dave Matthews and Aaron Coons, along with fisheries and aquatic monitoring manager Lyn Williams and the North Carolina Natural Resources Commission team, couldn’t reach some remote stretches of rocky streams by boat.

Despite challenges, crews collected six thousand eggs from Georgia that, once reared into fish, will be reintroduced in the Nottely River. And they found fish in new reaches.

“They have slowly moved up the river,” Matthews said. “We found females that had spawned. So that gives us hope.”

Other Working Group members are optimistic, too.

“Following the (privately owned Ela) dam removal, we can restart our restoration efforts and reevaluate migration,” Caleb Hickman, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians supervisory biologist, said.

“We’ll re-enact traditional fishing practices,” Mike LaVoie, Tribal natural resources director, said. “There are a couple generations who don't know how to do this.”

Already, there’s much to celebrate.

The Warm Springs Hatchery breeding program has released almost 100,000 sicklefin back into the wild.

The public can learn about the fish at the Tennessee Aquarium exhibit, sponsored by the TVA-funded Sicklefin Redhorse Candidate Conservation Agreement.

And for the first time ever, the sicklefin redhorse will have a scientific description and name that honors what the Cherokee call the species, Ugidatli..

“The best part is being able to help out a fish that needs it,” Matthews said. “For me, that's it. And working with these great biologists. Just the whole package.”

Photo Gallery

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission crew faces high water challenges during a rainy week of monitoring.

When scientists net a sicklefin redhorse, they scan the fish for a tiny tag that identifies each individual. If the fish isn’t tagged, it represents a wild-born fish and they tag it in the field.

Watch a video from the release of thousands of sicklefin redhorse fish from the northern Georgia hatchery into streams in Georgia and North Carolina in July 2022.

PHOTO AT TOP OF PAGE: Tiffany Penland, who leads Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ sicklefin redhorse work, Jessica Giddens, TVA aquatic zoologist and Talia Levine, wildlife biologist, seine net Brasstown Creek for sicklefin redhorse fish.

The sicklefin redhorse migrates upriver to spawn, and here gleams gold before its release back into the river.

Supporting Sicklefin Redhorse Conservation Efforts

Sicklefin Redhorse Candidate Conservation Agreement board members include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Sicklefin Redhorse Working Group research and supporting organizations include Conservation Fisheries Incorporated, Mountain True, Mainspring Conservation Trust, the universities of Tennessee, Georgia and Western Carolina, Young Harris College and Tennessee Technological and Auburn universities.