Trout Fishing in Virginia Listen to the program: Program aired on June 25, 2001 and June 18, 2002. To listen to the program, you need Real Player. Click on the Real Player image for a free download. Is acid rain hurting Virginia's state fish, the brook trout_ Recently, Virginia anglers collected water samples from almost four hundred local trout streams to help fishery biologists find out. This new project, called the Virginia trout sensitivity study, is a follow-up to an identical survey performed in 1987. Scientists say that the brook trout is more acid-tolerant than other fish. If trout populations are declining due to acid rain, this is an early warning sign that other species in Virginia's aquatic ecosystems, and throughout the Appalachian region, will suffer as well. | Background info | References and further reading |

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State fish

Brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis, are the only native trout in Virginia. In fact, brook trout originally only occurred in North America and their status as a native has earned them the position of state fish for eight states—the most claimed by any one fish. Brook trout, a cold water species, are usually found in the headwaters of mountain streams throughout their habitat range.

Picture: Brook trout. Picture courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/ Duane Raver.

Unlike other species of trout and the closely related salmon, the brook trout do not regularly migrate to the ocean to find food before returning to freshwater to spawn. While members of a population may migrate, others remain in the streams and rivers and once the brook trout reach the ocean, they don't stray far from the river mouth that they entered from.

The Virginia Trout Stream Sensitivity Study

Brook trout is said to be more tolerant of acidic conditions than most fish, so when researchers find that acidic conditions—mostly due to acid deposition—are hurting the fish population, the researchers know that other aquatic species, typically less tolerant of acidic conditions, could also be affected.

To determine the health of streams in Virginia, the Virginia branch of Trout Unlimited coordinated the April 2000 Virginia Trout Stream Sensitivity Study (VTSSS) in which volunteers took samples of close to 400 trout streams. The 2000 study was a follow up to a similar study done in 1987.

The results of the new study showed that only half of Virginia’s trout streams don't have elevated levels of acidity and six percent of all streams are chronically acidic, no longer capable of supporting populations of trout or other fish. 

Researchers and fishermen are hoping that this study will give Virginia a head start in preventing further degradation of trout streams from acid rain.

References and further reading

Related Watershed Radio programs

• Search for other Watershed Radio programs in the Archive. The archive includes more programs about fish and pollution, including another program about Brook Trout and the causes and effects of acid rain.
  

About brook trout and acid rain

• University of Virginia News: Virginia Trout Stream Sensitivity Study 2000.
• Shenandoah watershed study and Virginia trout stream sensitivity study.
• Crisis looming in Virginia’s trout streams.
  An article about the VTSSS on the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy website.
• Brook trout a.k.a. speckled trout.
  Information about the brook trout by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
• EPA information on acid rain.
  Learn more about the acid deposition that is affecting the trout streams.

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