Skip to agency navigation
Skip to main content

Official website

of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

    The .gov means it's official.

    Local, state, and federal government websites often end in .gov. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania government websites and email systems use "pennsylvania.gov" or "pa.gov" at the end of the address. Before sharing sensitive or personal information, make sure you're on an official state website. 

    Chesapeake Logperch

    Learn more about the restorative work PFBC staff and partners are doing to bring back Chesapeake Logperch populations in restored streams.

    Close-up of a hand holding a small Chesapeake Logperch along the surface of a stream.

    Chesapeake Logperch Restoration

    Until about 20 years ago, the Chesapeake Logperch was a forgotten species, and because its worldwide range is so narrow— the lower Susquehanna River and Potomac River watersheds and some tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay—it wasn’t even considered in plans for species restoration. But, in recent years, the PFBC and partners have taken steps to give this tiny darter a chance, focusing on work that would keep it from landing on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s list of endangered species.

    As tiny as the fish is, the steps in restoring it, although vitally important, are also tiny. For the PFBC and partners, the work includes taking small Chesapeake Logperch populations from streams they had retreated to when polluted waters became inhospitable and returning them to restored streams. Subsequent surveys and monitoring, as some fish are tagged, have shown success with populations discovered in other restored waterways.

    Two years ago, the PFBC’s Aquatic Conservation Center began breeding the Chesapeake Logperch in captivity. They started with a few pairs, a species that is slow to propagate, and have produced more than 300 fry this year. The process is quite complex as the fry are so small (think half the thickness of a sheet of paper and as long as a small grain of rice). They can’t even eat baby brine shrimp, the standard first food. So, biologists have innovated new protocols and hope to produce over 1,000 each year to aid in the recovery of this small but now unforgettable species.

    Recovery of the Chesapeake Logperch

    The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) leads an effort funded by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to prevent the Chesapeake Logperch from becoming federally threatened or endangered. The small, relatively unknown fish is currently listed as threatened in Pennsylvania and Maryland and has a very small known global distribution, mostly within a few small tributaries of the lower Susquehanna River. This video describes efforts by researchers from several conservation agencies to study the life cycle of the Chesapeake Logperch and restore their numbers within their historical home range. (Project partners include the PFBC, USFWS, Penn State University, Pennsylvania Biological Survey, Susquehanna River Basin Commission, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Conservation Fisheries, Inc., and volunteers.)