“If you were to compare the Susquehanna River watershed with the Allegheny and Ohio, our basin is much worse off because I’d say that 95 percent of the populations in the Susquehanna watershed have disappeared.” - Dr. Peter Petokas
“But now, as far as the North Branch in the river, there is nothing left and in the main stem, it is pretty much the same thing,” he said. “We are only seeing a few residual populations in other parts of the watershed. “If you were to compare the Susquehanna River watershed with the Allegheny and Ohio, our basin is much worse off because I’d say that 95 percent of the hellbender populations in the Susquehanna watershed have dis - appeared, leaving just a few populations. While in the Ohio and Allegheny, they still have sizeable populations that are still reproducing. So comparatively, in my experience and that of others, we are definitely in worse shape.” The decline has been gradual since the 1970s and 80s, according to Peto - kas, “and I think that we are still seeing some indication of a slight decline in the remaining populations.” He admits there are still hellbenders out there across the Susquehanna watershed, but “there is no indica - tion they could completely restart a population (on their own).” Why the decline? Reasons for the hellbender’s decline are many, Petokas admits, but chief among them remains sedimentation. “They live their entire lives under these big rocks. They need the small crevices and fis - sures for their life cycles, and sediment can completely cut that off,” he said, adding that while we have come a long way to address some of the issues with erosion, there is much more to be done if we are going to reverse damage to hellbender habitat.
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