Chapter 3 North Carolina Species
restoration of riparian buffers, removing barriers to fish passage (e.g., culverts, dams), and coordination with local, state, and federal agencies and organizations that regulate use and standards of water resources. The Cherokee also collaborate with the conservation of culturally significant and imperiled species, including the Sicklefin Redhorse. Since 2007, translocation efforts have aimed to restore this species to both current and ancestral habitats. First recognized by western science in 1992, the Sicklefin Redhorse was identified with its Cherokee name—meaning “wearing a feather”—through consultation with fluent Cherokee speakers, referencing its distinctive dorsal fin (Jenkins et al. 2025) . There are numerous instances of nonnative fish species being introduced into the state’s waters and for some of these species there are significant concerns. For example, the Flathead Catfish is an obligate piscivore (fish-eating species) that has been associated with declines and extirpations of native fish populations in areas where it has been introduced. 3.5.6 Threats and Problems Chapter 5 describes 11 categories of threats the Freshwater Fish Taxa Team considered during evaluation and ranking process to identify SGCN. Evaluation results for Metric 9 about the expected scope and severity of these threats are available in Appendix 5. The most likely threats to have very high impacts on freshwater fish populations in North Carolina over the next 10 years include the following:
• Natural system modifications (see Appendix 5, Table 5.9-1) • Residential and commercial development (see Appendix 5, Table 5.3-1) • Agriculture and aquaculture (see Appendix 5, Table 5.4-1) • Pollution (see Appendix 5, Table 5.11-1) • Energy production and mining (see Appendix 5, Table 5.5-1) • Invasives, problematic species and genes (see Appendix 5, Table 5.10-1)
There are water quality concerns beyond turbidity and sedimentation. The presence of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), even at very low concentrations, can disrupt normal development and lead to reproductive problems. Many fishes, especially piscivores, bioaccumulate and bioconcentrate (retain in tissue) heavy metals such as mercury and arsenic, as well as many chemical pollutants, via predation on other fish that have absorbed these contaminants. Smallmouth Bass can be an environmental indicator, and long-term monitoring of populations can identify where there are problems with heavy metals in fish tissue or the presence of EDCs (Brewer and Orth 2015) . Immune suppression can be detected through presence of fin and skin erosions, lesions, and partial fish kills (Ripley et al. 2008; Blazer et al. 2010; Brewer and Orth 2015) .
Microplastics are persistent organic pollutants that include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and perfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS) (Melnyk et al.
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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