Rare Fish Found In Grand Bay

November 22, 2004

Release from: Ben Raines
Mobile Register

Scientists said that there is compelling evidence that a rare, pencil-shaped fish called the opossum pipefish could be breeding in Mobile County's Grand Bay, raising fresh interest in the unusual diversity of the area and new questions about the effects of drilling for gas there.

While the species has not been documented in Mississippi or Alabama for more than 30 years, marine biologists believe that an 8-inch specimen captured by Mobile Register reporters in Grand Bay in late July is an opossum pipefish.

The fish was caught in a cast net a few feet from the Mississippi/Alabama line as reporters surveyed the bay's plant and animal communities.

Until the Register's find, scientists feared that the opossum pipefish, which is a candidate for the endangered species list, had disappeared from the northern Gulf of Mexico. The only permanent breeding population documented in U.S. waters is on the east coast of Florida.

A distant cousin of the seahorse, the opossum pipefish takes its name from a pouch on the male's belly, where he carries hundreds of fertilized eggs until they hatch. In the pipefish and seahorse families, it is the male who becomes "pregnant" and carries the babies to term.

The pipefish caught by the Register was quickly released unharmed after it was photographed. Later, when Register reporters began analyzing the photograph, it became apparent that it was very different from the few common pipefish species found around Mobile Bay.

Sarah Frias-Torres, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who has published scientific papers on opossum pipefish and studied pipefish populations in the United States and abroad, said the specimen photographed by the Register is either an opossum pipefish (Microphis brachyurus lineatus) or another rare species known as the chain pipefish (Syngnathus louisianae).

"My gut feeling, combined of course with all of my scientific training, is that this picture is very suggestive of an opossum pipefish. There are only two species it could be. Either way, both species are in a lot of danger in terms of survival," Frias-Torres said. "If this ID is true, it means that Grand Bay is exceptionally rich. But it also means the area is playing host to these fish. This is a big deal. They are so rare that finding one of these is like finding a gold mine."

Though a few species of pipefish are still common in Alabama waters, the opossum pipefish and its rare kin can be readily distinguished by their distinctively long snout -- nearly 2 inches on the specimen caught by the Register -- used to slurp tiny crustaceans out of the water.

The greenish brown body of the opossum pipefish sports dozens of raised rings that begin just behind the head and run all the way to the tail. During the breeding season, the male often sports an unusually vivid red stripe along the side of the head. The opossum is unique among pipefish species in that its egg hatching pouch is located in the middle of the body. On other pipefish, the pouch is near the tail.

The single photograph taken by the Register is all the biologists have to work from to identify the fish. A number of the scientists, including marine biologist Bob Shipp of the University of South Alabama, stated that the fish was an opossum, based on the photo. Others agreed that the fish had all of the requisite physical features of an opossum pipefish, but they said it would be necessary to see the fish's belly or the side of its long snout and head to definitively identify it. Only the dorsal, or upper, portion of the fish is visible in the photograph.

Surveys said needed

All agreed that thorough surveys of the area were needed immediately to confirm that the pipefish is indeed living in Grand Bay, and then to discover the extent of the population.

The shallow, clear waters of Grand Bay -- which straddles the Mississippi/Alabama line -- are dotted with small islands, prehistoric shell mounds, thousands of acres of marsh habitat and vast meadows of the seagrasses that pipefish need to survive. Those seagrass beds are widely recognized as the largest and best preserved in both Alabama and Mississippi.

The unexpected find was made about a mile from the site chosen by an oil company to drill an exploratory natural gas well. In mid-October, officials with Alabama Marine Resources and the State Lands division told the Register that they were "comfortable" with Colorado-based Duncan Oil's proposal, although it could mean dragging drilling barges, tug boats and other equipment into a pristine area described on a federal web site as "one of the most biologically productive estuarine ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico region."

More recently, state officials said they would take steps to protect the area, though the question of whether the company will be allowed to haul drilling equipment and tugs through the shallow bay remains unresolved.

On Monday, Alabama Conservation Commissioner Barnett Lawley sent the oil company a letter temporarily denying permission to drill. The letter stated that a detailed survey of the area would be required before Lawley would grant a permit. The letter also asked the company to determine the "presencabsence of endangered species."

Lawley expressed surprise late last week when told of the opossum pipefish find.

"Well, if a species like that is in there, that is something they will have to take into account," Lawley said. "If what they are doing would have an impact on the fish, then that is definitely something they would have to address."

Biologists who surveyed the area with Register reporters in September said it would be difficult to drill in Grand Bay without harming the habitat unless the company agreed to operate from deeper water offshore and use directional drilling techniques to minimize damage to the seagrasses. Directional techniques allow oil and gas companies to reach deposits beneath sensitive areas while keeping drill equipment far away in deeper waters.

Those biologists noted that Mississippi permanently protected its half of the bay from drilling back in June, one week after Alabama's State Lands division leased its share of the bay for drilling. Mississippi's half has been designated a federally protected bioreserve.

The possible presence of the opossum pipefish in Grand Bay could make the permitting process for Duncan Oil far more complicated, especially at the federal level. Some of the agencies involved in listing the pipefish as a potentially endangered species must sign off on any drilling permits in Grand Bay.

The only known permanent breeding sites for the species in the United States are tributaries of Florida's Indian River Lagoon on the Atlantic coast. Scientists say the tropical species is able to survive the cold winter temperatures of central Florida by seeking refuge in the spring fed-streams that empty into Indian River.

The possible find of an opossum in this area highlights the importance of old opossum pipefish specimens in an Ocean Springs museum run by the University of South Mississippi. Scientists who have reviewed those specimens said that they indicate that this area was also a breeding ground, at least up through the 1960s.

Sara LeCroy, curator of the university's Gulf Coast Research Lab Museum, said the collection contains 10 samples of "brooding males." LeCroy said the fish were captured in Biloxi Bay with the pouches on their bellies bulging with baby pipefish. In pipefish, as in the seahorse family, eggs from the female are deposited into a pouch on the male's body where they are fertilized and carried until hatching. The males end up carrying about 700 eggs in their pouch for 10 days.

Spawn in freshwater

Scientists liken the pipefish to salmon in that both species are anadromous, meaning they live much of their adult life in saltwater, then move into freshwater to spawn. The young eventually drift out into the rich waters of the open ocean until they are old enough to reproduce.

"This species, these are migratory pipefish," Frias-Torres said. "Their babies are just tiny when they drift out into the Gulf. They grow up in the sargussum fields until they decide to head inshore to find freshwater for spawning. They don't necessarily return to the same areas where they were born, like salmon do. We think they just look for a place with freshwater and lots of vegetation, seagrasses. There are fewer and fewer of those places left. This is why pipefish are in trouble."

The museum's collection of brooding males were caught back in the 1960s. Biloxi Bay has since been altered by rapid coastal development and may no longer support any pipefish, according to biologists.

Even decades ago, when the Biloxi population was known to be stable and reproducing, scientists believed the fish would be unable to survive many winters in the area. The conventional wisdom was that the local populations might be wiped out every four or five years, if winter temperatures dropped low enough. The area would then have to be recolonized by opossum pipefish returning from the Gulf to spawn in freshwater.

But now, based on a description of physical features in Grand Bay, Frias-Torres said it is possible that the shallow bay and its tributaries might well serve as a permanent breeding area, like the Indian River system.

"I don't know this Grand Bay area, but the more I read about it, the more I learn about it, the more unique it seems to be. If there are springs in there, the opossum might be able to use this area to survive winters. They might be doing it," Frias-Torres said. "That would be significant."

Register surveys of just a small portion of the thousands of acres of pine savannas, cypress swamps and pitcher plant bogs that surround the shoreline marshes of Grand Bay revealed numerous streams fed by underground aquifers. Temperatures in those streams were in the 70s this summer, while water temperatures in Mississippi Sound climbed into the 90s, indicating that the streams could maintain comfortable temperatures most of the year.

Scientists said that if the temperatures were stable and remained warm enough through the winter, those spring streams could provide the same sort of thermal refuge that the pipefish in Indian River rely on.

"This is a critical time for all the pipefish species. They are like the canary in the coal mine. This is the same story. When you lose this characteristic species, it means something is wrong with the habitat," Frias-Torres said. "With pipefish, it's not just that you are looking at a rare fish. You are also looking at a rare type of habitat. This species, they only live in grass beds. We are making these fish rare by destroying the only places they can live."

A 1998 Gulf Coast Research Laboratory seagrass study concluded that Mississippi had lost half of its seagrass beds since 1968 and "has virtually lost all but one of its marine seagrass species." The picture is similar in Alabama's seagrass beds, according to federal scientists.