Darters

KEDM Public Radio | By Kelby Ouchley

Published June 11, 2018 at 9:00 AM EDT

Probably the most popular kinds of fish in this area are bass, white perch or crappie, bream, and catfish. They are well known because they are fun to catch and good to eat. However, in terms of biological diversity, this group falls at the bottom rung of the aquatic ladder. In Louisiana, there are only two species of black bass, two species of bream-like sunfish. Another group, almost completely unknown even to amid fishermen, swims our rivers and creeks with dramatic diversity of form, color, and species. Collectively, they are called Darters.

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Kelby Ouchley

Kelby was a biologist and manager of National Wildlife Refuges for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 30 years. He has worked with alligators in gulf coast marshes and Canada geese on Hudson Bay tundra. His most recent project was working with his brother Keith of the Louisiana Nature Conservancy on the largest floodplain restoration project in the Mississippi River Basin at the Mollicy Unit of the Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge, reconnecting twenty-five square miles of former floodplain forest back to the Ouachita River.

See stories by Kelby Ouchley