Fish and Aquatic Species

There is a growing and urgent need to develop and implement innovative strategies to research, monitor, and manage freshwater resources as societal demands escalate simultaneously with climate-driven changes in water availability.

We are a scientific leader in aquatic species biology, genetics, toxicological and pathogenic disease, ecology, and population tracking and dynamics for at-risk aquatic species including native fish and their ecosystems.

Across the country, USGS scientists research amphibians to help other agencies manage this historically underappreciated and now declining group. Our scientists have learned that no single threat explains global amphibian declines; instead, a variety of local and global factors are contributing. Habitat loss, disease, contaminants, and other threats are all part of the pattern.

Below are journal articles about fish and aquatic animal health from the Eastern Ecological Science Center published in 2021 and 2022.

The mission brings together state, federal, tribal, Canadian provincial, private, and non-profit partners using advanced fishery research approaches to enhance fishery assessment methods.

Black basses (Micropterus spp) are enigmatic North American sportfishes that support the most economically valuable freshwater sport fishery in the United States and serve as keystone predators within aquatic ecosystems. Hyperpigmented melanistic lesions on the surface of black basses have been observed in a number of waterbodies across the country in increasing frequency. We have recently...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing ecology and conservation by enabling species recognition from photos and videos. Our project evaluates the capacity to expand AI for individual fish recognition for population assessment. The success of this effort would facilitate fisheries analysis at an unprecedented scale by engaging anglers and citizen scientists in imagery collection. This...

Collaboration between the world-class expertise of USGS scientists, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Science Program, and state and federal fishery agencies demonstrates the power of partnerships to solve seemingly-insurmountable problems in sustainable and cooperative management of Atlantic coastal fisheries.

The USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) is designed to determine where populations of amphibians are present, to monitor specific apex populations, and to investigate potential causes of amphibian declines, diseases, and malformations. The Northeast Region of ARMI encompasses thirteen states (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New...

Freshwater mussel conservation efforts depend on identifying habitat characteristics that are suitable for mussel reintroduction and restoration. CERC scientists are conducting research to understand how physical habitat dynamics affect the distribution of mussels and suitable habitat in streams and rivers.

WARC researchers partnered with Gulf Sturgeon decision makers and biologists to develop a Bayesian network model that uses habitat characteristics to predict the quantity of juvenile winter foraging habitat under alternative river discharge and timing of juvenile arrival scenarios.

Researchers will develop and optimize an eDNA assay to delineate the current distribution of P. inflatus. The assay will then be used to provide up-to-date distributional information and detection rates for P. inflatus in the Pearl River basin.