It’s a small fish, only about six inches in length.
And it’s pretty unique. It’s only found in the upper reaches of the Roanoke, Dan and Chowan river systems in Virginia with a small population in North Carolina (although it wasn’t found in NC until 2007). The fish was listed as federally endangered in 1989.
We’re talking about the Roanoke logperch. But now there’s reason to believe the logperch may survive.
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) and North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation have partnered to reintroduce the Roanoke logperch to Mayo River State Park in Rockingham County.
Fingerling, or juvenile, logperch were released at the state park’s Anglin Mill access above the Avalon Dam in November 2024. This came one month after the two state agencies signed an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) granting NCWRC and USFWS access to conserve important, high-risk aquatic species, including the Roanoke logperch, across 18 miles of the state park’s habitat.
“The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is excited to partner with the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation to reintroduce the Roanoke logperch,” said Rachael Hoch, NCWRC’s assistant chief of inland fisheries division, in a news release. “Through a permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, we can partner with non-federal landowners by enrolling properties for inclusion in the Safe Harbor Agreement for the Roanoke logperch.”
The new release is the latest effort to restore the Roanoke logperch. The fish was first introduced into the Mayo River upstream of the Washington Mill Dam in October 2023. The Piedmont Land Conservancy partnered with the agency on that release.
Release points are carefully chosen. Biologists say the deposit of sediment, channel modification and instream barriers such as dams limit the Roanoke logperch’s ability to recover. Increased sediment affects the species’ ability to forage for food. Dams prevent migration back to their natural habitats in the upper Mayo River. So, the fish is stocked upstream of dams on the river as well as in areas with high-quality habitats.
The Roanoke logperch lives in the pools and riffles (rocky, shallow parts of streams with rough water) of slow-moving, warm, small- to medium-sized rivers that have sandy, stony or boulder-filled bottoms. The fish uses its conical snout to turn over gravel and feed on exposed invertebrates. It lays its eggs on rocks at the bottom of streams.
That makes state parks an ideal location.
“The Mayo River is home to rich wildlife, and the protection of an important aquatic habitat has been at the [forefront] of our work to operate and expand Mayo River State Park,” said Kathy Capps, NC State Parks deputy director of operations. “We are grateful to our parent agency, the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, for recognizing the key role that state parks play as wildlife preserves and paving the way for this agreement with NCWRC.”
Biologists plan to track and monitor the stocked fish annually.
The Roanoke logperch from both 2023 and 2024 releases were spawned by Conservation Fisheries in Knoxville, Tennessee, and transferred to the NCWRC Conservation Aquaculture Center in Marion, where they were grown to stockable size.
“The Dan River Basin is one of the most diverse places in the state for aquatic species,” said TR Russ, Foothills aquatic wildlife diversity coordinator, in the release. “The reintroduction of Roanoke logperch into the Mayo River above Avalon Dam returns this species, once lost, back into this diverse and special place.”
To learn more about endangered river fish and efforts to repopulate them, watch this Sci NC story on saving the Cape Fear shiner.
NC scientists work together to protect a tiny, endangered fish, the Cape Fear shiner.