Sharphead Darter Rediscovery 
139 
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 
We collected Etheostoma acuticeps on 14 July 1977 in the Cane River just 
below the US hy. 19W bridge, 1 km se of Sioux, Yancey County, North 
Carolina. It has since been collected at several sites between the 19W 
bridge and the confluence with the Toe River by E. F. Menhinick and his 
ichthyology class from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and 
by the authors. Attempts by both groups to find the fish above the 19W 
bridge have been fruitless, leading us to believe that this is its upstream 
limit. 
The river above the bridge is slightly higher in gradient than below, 
with larger rocks and less riverweed, Podostemum ceratophyllum. The only 
member of the subgenus Nothonotus found there was the Greenfin darter, 
Etheostoma chlorobranchium. The habitat below the bridge is more like that 
in the lower Nolichucky. The Sharphead darter is found in the main body 
of riffles, in fairly swift water 15-40 cm deep. The substrate is cobble and 
small boulders, 8-20 cm in diameter, usually well covered with riverweed. 
The lower Nolichucky has slightly smaller substrate and lower current 
velocity. The lower Cane River drops about 2.3 m/km and the lower 
Nolichucky only 1 m/km. The riffles are typically shaded by large trees 
and bordered by beds of waterwillow, Justicia amencana. Etheostoma 
acuticeps is not a numerous species at any of these sites. The largest collec-- 
tion made by Menhinick and class at the 19W bridge included only 14 
specimens in a sample containing 80 other darters. 
During November 1977 a flood in the Cane River watershed washed 
away a road, a house and a service station at the 19W bridge. In order to 
replace the road bed, bulldozers were used in the vicinity of the bridge, an 
action which inadvertently eliminated Sharphead darter habitat. The 
shade trees, waterwillow beds, and thick riverweed growth are gone, and 
the area is broad, bare gravel. Just how much of this destruction is due to 
the bulldozing is difficult to assess, but riffles above and below the bridge 
seem to be unchanged and normal habitat. Intensive sampling at t 
bridge on 23 September 1978 revealed mostly Gilt darters, Percina evides 
few E. chlorobranchium and only one E. acuticeps. In addition, Big Creek, 
which enters the Cane just above the bridge, has been channelized for 
several kilometers upstream. This may have detrimental effects on the 
lower Cane. Other problems upstream of the E. acuticeps population in- 
clude two gravel washing operations, one of which, according to a local 
game warden, was the source of a chemical spill that resulted in a fish kill 
5 km long. 
Etheostoma acuticeps is known in North Carolina from only the lower 6 
km of the Cane River. It apparently is not numerous and its continued ex- 
istence is not assured. Channelization, gravel washing, and possible 
