8 John E. Cooper and Ray E. Ashton, Jr. 



creeks; these streams join the Tar River in Edgecombe County, a few 

 miles west of the Fishing Creek confluence. The largest Coastal Plain 

 tributary is Tranters Creek, a slow-moving blackwater stream that rises 

 in southwestern Martin County, flows south, and confluences with the 

 Tar northwest of Washington, Beaufort County. East of Washington 

 the Tar River becomes the Pamlico River, which flows southeast into 

 the Pamlico River Estuary and then enters Pamlico Sound. The Tar- 

 Pamlico River system drains a watershed of around 3,100 square miles. 



COMMENTS ON THE FAUNAS 



Throughout their lengths the Neuse and Tar rivers are parallel sys- 

 tems, and seem to support nearly identical faunas. Bailey (1977:275) 

 remarked that the Tar must have been a tributary of the Neuse "during 

 the late Pleistocene, about 18,000 years ago." 



Fishes 



Bailey (1977:274) noted that "The Neuse River basin has the richest 

 recorded fish fauna of our watersheds, though it is only third in drain- 

 age area." He also pointed out that, except for the white sucker, Catos- 

 tomus commersoni (Lacep"ede), all of the Tar's fish species also are in 

 the Neuse, but a number of Neuse species may be absent from the Tar. 

 An ictalurid — Noturus furiosus Jordan and Meek, the Carolina mad- 

 tom -- is endemic to both river systems. Bailey et al. (1977:279) consid- 

 ered this fish a species of Special Concern. Cooper and Braswell (1982) 

 noted: "Based on the very small numbers of specimens taken in recent 

 years, despite intensive sampling at many localities in both rivers, the 

 species seems to have experienced a serious decline." They added, "Its 

 endemicity and apparent rarity make it vunerable to extinction." In 

 October 1984, Braswell and Cooper discovered two populations of N. 

 furiosus in the Tar River, one at a site in the Piedmont Plateau and the 

 other at a site in the Coastal Plain. The fish was common at both sites. 

 Thus, N. furiosus may be in less trouble in the Tar River basin than it 

 appears to be in the Neuse. The Office of Endangered Species, USFWS, 

 is considering the species for national listing, but not until a pre-listing 

 study has been completed. 



Mussels 



At least four species of mussels that occur in either or both of the 

 rivers were considered in jeopardy by Fuller (1977). "Canthyria" sp., the 

 Tar River Spiny Mussel, is a unique Tar River species about which 

 Fuller said (p. 158), "little is known of its natural history, including the 

 identity of any glochidial host or other aspects of its reproduction." He 

 considered the species to be Endangered in North Carolina. A recent 

 study by Johnson and Clarke (1983) indicated that the former range of 

 this mussel, to which they applied the name Elliptio (Canthyria) stein- 



