Freshwater Fishes of the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware

Encompassing habitats as diverse as alpine forests and subtropical swamps, the Mid-Atlantic region has a richly diverse fish fauna. Outside of the important sport and commercial species, however, few are known to the average person. This book provides information on how to identify some 260 species of freshwater fish, from the largemouth bass to the rosyside dace. Illustrated with more than 200 color photographs, most by James Parnell, this guide provides a detailed description of each species as well as notes on its distribution and abundance, habitat, and natural history (diet, spawning habits, growth, and so forth). Range maps show the distribution of each species. Of particular interest in this time of heightened awareness of environmental degradation are the many references to threatened and endangered species and the effects of deteriorating water quality on their survival.

Author Biography

Fred C. Rohde was a senior biologist with the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries for twenty-five years before joining the National Marine Fisheries Service in Beaufort, North Carolina. Coauthor of Freshwater Fishes of the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, Rohde has been studying fishes in South Carolina since 1977. Rudolf G. Arndt is a professor emeritus and an adjunct professor of marine science at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, where he has taught since 1974. He is also a coauthor of Freshwater Fishes of the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. Jeffrey W. Foltz is a professor of fisheries at Clemson University, where he has taught since 1978. Joseph M. Quattro is an associate professor of biological and marine sciences at the University of South Carolina. He has studied the evolutionary history of Carolina fishes and taught ichthyology since 1995.