Shoal bass extinct in Alabama

[lampern]

Answer to yesterday's WTBW. The word "throwback" was a hint. These are two native Shoal Bass collected from Little Uchee Creek in Alabama, not far from the campus of Auburn University. Not too long ago, this was the last holdout of Shoal Bass in the state of Alabama, somehow withstanding land use changes and the onslaught of non-native spotted bass. Suddenly, sometime between 2012 and today, the population just blinked out. Repeated sampling in this beautiful area has failed to turn up a single Shoal Bass. Sadly, this population joins the increasing ranks of unexplained extirpations and sudden declines throughout the Chattahoochee River basin. Some day we hope to restore this noble bass to at least some of its former haunts in the basin, but for now, this just stands as another sad testimony of the fragility of nature in the face of a burgeoning human population that too often has little regard for what it is doing to its surroundings in the name of progress.

Shoal bass gone from one state

 

[fish hawk]

There has been a ban on keeping shoal bass from Alabama tributaries for quite some time,that population has been in trouble for a while,sad to see them disappear.I know Steve and the guys over at Auburn put a lot of work in on those streams.Florida just recently placed a halt on the harvest of shoal bass. https://www.gameandfishmag.com/editorial/florida-orders-halt-keeping-shoal-bass-chipola-river/361468

 

[mamatried]

I believe Florida has had a ban on harvesting shoal bass from the northern stretch of the Chipola for some time before this year. Don't know how much affect the ban will have on the lower chipola, seems like less shoal habitat around there but good for Florida for trying to stay in the shoal bass game.