Endangered Redside Dace Found in Rouge River!

The summer Rouge River fish surveys started off with a great surprise. While measuring and identifying fish on the Johnson Creek, Bob Muller noticed a minnow with a very large mouth and red stripe. It turned out to be a redside dace, a species found in very few watersheds in the state, endangered in Michigan, and declining in the Rouge River watershed.

The Rouge fish team has only found one redside dace in the Johnson Creek since 2012 and none at this site before. Redside dace need very cold, clean water to survive. Their large mouth enables them to catch flying insects as they jump out of the water. A total of five redside dace were found at the site, all juvenile. This  indicates that redside dace still survive and are reproducing in the Johnson Creek. This is great news in light of threats posed by the recent oil spill as well as the massive development along Five Mile Road.

In addition to seining for fish, the Friends will be collecting water quality data, led by UM student and FOTR intern Lian Anderson at 20+ sites. The data help in examining how the fish community is changing over time. 

To learn more about the fish found in the Rouge River, come to the FOTR office and purchase the latest edition of Bob Muller’s book “The Fish Community of the Rouge River Watershed.” He apologizes that the distribution map for redside dace is missing one dot for the new site.