While the ideal solution would be to clean up polluted water ways before species are threatened, frequently time does not allow this to happen. With the proper use of captive propagation and translocation, some species have been saved who likely would now be extinct!
One example of successful use of this technique is found in Abrams Creek in Tennessee. In an article published in Southeastern Naturalist, J.R. Shute and colleagues report the successful reintroduction of four threatened fishes to Abrams Creek (pictured above). In a project which began in 1986, by the year 2000 there was evidence of reproduction of all four species! By 2003, three of the four showed increasing populations, and two had numbers comparable to native populations in nearby unpolluted creeks.
While the Abrams Creek project is a success story, a number of similar programs have been met with failure. As the science has evolved and experience has been gained, guidelines have now been established for propagation of threatened species of fish. In an article published in 2009 in Fisheries, Anna George and her colleagues have published a set of guidelines for propagation, translocation, reintroduction, and augmentation (PTRA) of at risk marine life. She writes that when such guidelines are followed, PTRA is an important management tool for recovery of imperiled fish.
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