Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Georgia
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

This work will provide long-term data on dispersal behavior, habitat use, and movement patterns of hatchery-reared robust redhorse released into regional rivers. Specifically, husbandry efforts by the Warm Spring Fish Technology Center (USFWS) have produced many stockable-sized fish, but questions about their dispersal behavior, long-term habitat use and movement patterns have hindered decisions about when and where to release these fish. As a result, ongoing efforts to restore this species to much of its historic range (i.e., medium-sized and large rivers in the Piedmont and Upper Coastal Plain physiographic provinces of the Atlantic Slope) also have been hindered. Also, information about the habitat use of juveniles (relative to that of adults) will help interpret size-class data from the Oconee River population and facilitate better management decisions for protecting this species. Finally, this work will provide evidence of the value of stocking robust redhorse in selected river reaches for the purposes of establishing refugial populations.