November 1, 2015 — On a cloudy spring day last year, I had the opportunity to go out on the Roanoke River with biologists from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. I collected fish with them as part of my job as a geneticist at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences. We work in conjunction with NCWRC and use genetics to track and manage stocking programs for American shad, a native fish currently in decline.
In an effort to bring American shad back to traditional population numbers, NCWRC goes out on the Roanoke and Neuse rivers every spring to collect adult American shad returning to spawn. These fish are taken to hatcheries to spawn; eggs are allowed to hatch safely without being eaten by the predators that share their river ecosystem. The baby fish, called fry, are then released back into the river. In the fall, NCWRC goes back onto the rivers to see how many juvenile fish they can find.