Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - March/April 2020 - 54

Return of the Chessie
Chesapeake Logperch,
Percina bimaculata

photos-Rob Criswell

by Rob Criswell
and Douglas Fischer
On two dates in late summer and early fall 2019, a historic
benchmark was realized in the Keystone State's nongame fishes
conservation program. Chesapeake Logperch were documented
in the Safe Harbor pool of the Susquehanna River for the first
time since 1842. Separated by obstructions from the main
population in the lower river for a century or more, its return
made quite a splash.
But Chesapeake Logperch did not navigate the gauntlet of tall
power dams on the Susquehanna River on its own, or otherwise
inexplicably appear in this section of river. These fish were the
early fruits of an ambitious project to return the diminutive fish
to its native range. The Chesapeake Logperch Recovery Project,
led by the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission (PFBC), is
a 4-year effort funded by the United States Fish and Wildlife
Service's State Wildlife Grant program and includes Penn State
University (PSU), the Susquehanna River Basin Commission,
Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and Conservation
Fisheries, Inc. (CFI) as partners.
The Chesapeake Logperch, Percina bimaculata, has an
elongate body and tiger-like vertical bars along its entire length.
At a maximum size of 4 inches or so, this darter is a small
relative of the well-known Yellow Perch and Walleye.
Its original distribution is presumed to have been confined
to the Potomac and Susquehanna rivers below the fall line, an
abrupt geologic change between the Piedmont and Ridge and
Valley physiographic provinces. It has never been reported
above Great Falls on the Potomac River or Conewago Falls (at
York Haven Dam) on the Susquehanna River. It disappeared
from the Potomac River, where it had been reported to be

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Pennsylvania Angler & Boater * March/April 2020	

common at some locations in the District of Columbia and
Maryland, by 1940 or so, a victim of siltation and pollution.
The Chesapeake Logperch was originally described to
science from specimens collected at Columbia, Lancaster
County, in the mid-18th century. Rampant pollution
eliminated the Chesapeake Logperch from much of the
Susquehanna River. A state health official, referring to
conditions in and around Harrisburg, stated in 1937
that, "The liquid between the river banks in most of our
industrialized sections is no longer water in its strict sense but
a conglomeration of human excretia and industrial wastes."
The logperch did survive the onslaught near the Mason-Dixon
line and remained in the lower river, a few of its tributaries,
and the nearby upper Chesapeake Bay.
These losses account for approximately 70% of the original
range. It is listed as a threatened species in Maryland and
Pennsylvania and is currently being reviewed for listing under
the federal Endangered Species Act. The primary objective
of the logperch project is to restore this fish in its historic
Susquehanna River territories in Pennsylvania.
Biologists and technicians involved in the recovery project
hope to establish wild populations above each of the dams
between Holtwood and York Haven, which should keep
Chesapeake Logperch from being federally listed. The first
steps were taken when 256 wild logperch collected elsewhere
were released in Conewago Creek, Dauphin and Lancaster
counties, on August 21. Subsequently, approximately 700
hatched and reared fish at the CFI and PSU aquaculture
facilities were liberated in Chiques Creek, Lancaster County,
on September 26, and another 200 were released the following
day during a well-attended media event.
The work leading to these releases was intensive. Adult
fish that would serve as brood stock were collected and
transported to the CFI facility in Knoxville, TN, in March
2019. The partners were then involved in status surveys
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Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - March/April 2020

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