Our History
A Tale of Three Madtoms
In 1957 Abrams Creek, a well-known waterway in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, was poisoned. The goal was to make a more hospitable environment for non-native trophy trout by eliminating the indigenous ecology. While this effort did clear out the carp, buffalo, and other intended species, it also killed off the smaller fish in the stream, such as madtoms and darters.
Ultimately, Abrams Creek couldn’t maintain the temperatures necessary for a trout fishery and the project failed. While generalist species which were more tolerant of the lake-like conditions in the main stem Tennessee River were able to return to the stream on their own, many of the specialized, more sensitive species were extirpated.
After a handful of preserved specimens from Abrams Creek made their way to a collection at the University of Michigan, William “Ralph” Taylor discovered that there was a small catfish which he didn’t recognize. While he first worked it out to be a Brindled Madtom, he soon realized their range didn’t extend that far south. It was at this point that he knew it was a new, undescribed species previously unknown to science.
Ralph decided that the name “Smoky Madtom” was a good fit for the small catfish from the Great Smoky Mountains, and set off in 1969 to see if he could find any existing populations. Unfortunately, none were found and the Smoky Madtom was assumed extinct.
About 20 years later, Gerry Dinkins discovered a population of Smoky Madtoms in nearby Citico Creek - the only population of this species ever found! In the same creek, he also found a population of Yellowfin Madtoms, which had only recently been discovered to have also narrowly dodged extinction.
Photo by Joel Sartore
Right People, Right Place, Right Time
Patrick Rakes and J.R. Shute both had childhoods that centered around the outdoors. A general love of natural places would eventually focus into a deep appreciation for freshwater fishes. While Pat started keeping aquaria at a young age, J.R. 's first personal aquarium was during his undergraduate years. They both eventually moved to Knoxville, Tennessee to receive their Masters in Zoology at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, working under the famed ichthyologist Dr. David Etnier.
As the two were finishing up their respective degrees, Dr. Etnier approached them about reintroducing the Smoky Madtom and Yellowfin Madtom back into Abrams Creek. Due to the small number of individuals remaining in the wild, it was clear that they would have to learn how to propagate this fish in the controlled conditions of an aquarium. This project was to be funded by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in an attempt to restore some of the original biodiversity to this stream. As Pat and J.R. were both avid aquarists and trained ichthyologists, they seemed like the ideal pair to tackle this unprecedented challenge.
An Ever-Expanding Vision
This project has had many homes. It started out in 1986 in the Hessler Biology Building on University of Tennessee Knoxville’s campus, eventually moving to the Walters Life Science Building. When it was decided that they needed more room, Pat and J.R. moved their propagation project to the back room of an aquarium store that J.R. co-owned at the time. It was at this location in 1992 that they were, with the help of a lawyer friend’s pro bono work, incorporated as a non-profit and Conservation Fisheries, Inc. was officially born.
CFI relocated to three different buildings around the Knoxville area before the last and final move in 2002 to our current building in Marble City, where we continue the work that began in a small office on the University of Tennessee’s campus.
We have grown over the years from starting with the Smoky and Yellowfin Madtoms to having now worked with over 80 species of fish. Contracts for certain species have come and gone, but our pioneer catfishes have been propagated or reared (what do these terms mean?) every year since our inception. Successful conservation is often a generational task, and we believe we are nearing the day that these founding species of our work can be removed from the Endangered Species List.