Fish
Nigel Brake
River Advocate, Ward 8 Woods
Fishing along the Potomac River is more than recreation—it’s food, tradition, and spiritual connection. But poor water quality, contaminated fish, and disappearing species are disrupting that relationship.
Consuming fish remains illegal for communities who live in and around Washington, DC. Generations who once relied on the river for sustenance now fish for the tradition only. Protecting aquatic life means restoring the river as a place of nourishment, learning, and pride.
How you can help
Support local groups that clean up shorelines, restore underwater habitat, and advocate to remove legacy pollutants from our waterways.
River Health Indicators & Analysis
Healthy fish populations are strong indicators of a healthy river while, conversely, declining populations can be indicative of threats like degraded water quality, habitat destruction, or competition from invasive species.
Unfortunately, abundances of key fish species across the Potomac watershed including striped bass, white perch, and smallmouth bass have exhibited steady declines over the past two decades. While improvements have been made in overall river water quality across the Potomac, a complex series of factors cause fish populations to continue to suffer. Excess sediment and nutrients, stream temperatures, and extreme droughts combined with intensifying storms are contributing to harmful conditions for the area’s fish, and lengthening droughts.
Average relative abundances of striped bass were at their lowest in the past five years when compared to previous years, causing the state of Maryland to enact emergency regulations in 2024 to try and protect spawning populations. These reductions in native fish populations are only exacerbated by continued proliferation of invasive species such as blue catfish and Chesapeake channa (northern snakehead).
American Shad are a native species of anadromous fish in the Potomac region and are vital indicator of stream health throughout the Chesapeake watershed. Shad once hosted an abundant fishery across the Chesapeake but started to decline with increased development and alterations in habitat and landscape.
Restoration efforts to improve American Shad populations have been in place for decades, with improvements in numbers being seen over the past decade. Average young-of-year (YOY) shad populations from 2019 to 2023 have seen a 267% increase from the 30-year historic mean but have decreased when compared to five-year averages over the preceding 15 years. This illustrates that while overall American Shad populations have improved dramatically since the 1980s, populations have exhibited subtle declines over the past few years. Thankfully, while it’s important to keep an eye on acute trends, overall Shad numbers in the Potomac watershed are promising.
In order for Shad populations to stabilize in the Potomac, habitat restoration in the form of increased acreages of underwater grasses and wetlands needs to continue and grow in scale. These improvements not only help with overall quality of the water but provide vital habitat space for juvenile Shad, offering rearing space and protection for the species during their life cycle where they are threatened the most.
Striped bass have been facing an uphill battle to full restoration for many years. From fishing moratoriums to degraded water quality and habitats, striped bass populations continue to fluctuate and have failed to make any real progress towards healthy stock levels. Like most fisheries, striped bass suffered an unusually hard year in 2023 with stocks only reaching 16% of historic 30-year means. The geometric mean catch per haul rate in 2023 was just 0.66, marking the second lowest year in the past decade.
The suffering of striped bass in the Potomac watershed has languished in the public eye for years with little progress made towards full restoration. Additionally, with climate change impacts like increased temperatures and shifts in frequency of precipitation events, habitats that can support healthy population numbers will only continue to degrade. Potomac river managers need to embrace realistic and actionable on the ground solutions that not only help these fish and their habitat to recover, but also strengthen their resilience for shifting climate conditions to come. Better land practices and improved SAV habitat for juveniles are just two common sense places to start.
White perch are often considered a cornerstone species of the Potomac watershed as they are found in many locations throughout the watershed. Unfortunately, 2023 was a rougher year than usual for Potomac River fish stocks as White Perch even saw some of their lowest numbers in the past few years. Populations in 2023 were just 31% of historic 30-year averages with a geometric mean catch per haul rate of just 1.96, the second lowest population year in the past decade. Special attention needs to be placed on White Perch populations as stocks continue to fluctuate year-over-year and they continue to suffer from a rise in predation from invasive species like the Northern Snakehead.
Smallmouth bass thrive in cool, clean waters throughout Potomac River tributaries, a fact that makes them excellent indicators of water quality. Smallmouth bass have called Potomac freshwater streams home for thousands of years; but lately, their populations have diminished. In fact 2023 saw some of the lowest reported smallmouth bass numbers reported in the past few years. The arithmetic mean young-of-year per seine net haul for smallmouth bass in 2023 was just 0.25, or just 14% of the 30-year historic mean. This may have been an uncommonly rough year for smallmouth bass numbers however the five year population trend is still only 39% of historic 30-year means. These low population numbers can be caused by detrimental habitat conditions affecting juvenile smallmouth, poorer than normal water clarity, or low flow conditions. Stronger protections are needed for headwaters tributaries with an increased focus on restoring riparian habitat and natural stream corridors harmed from previous development. Without these actions, these populations will only continue to suffer.
With increasingly warming waters and changing habitat conditions, Potomac River waters have become home to various invasive fish and plant species. These species are often introduced in small numbers from outside sources but often proliferate throughout the watershed as conditions become more favorable for them and less for native species. In the Potomac, blue catfish have become an ever increasing problem on tidal portions of the river as they can continue to grow and spread as long as the conditions are right and they have food to eat. Both 2022 and 2023 saw increases in blue catfish landings with an average increase of 27% percent over the past decade. With the continued growth of blue catfish populations they are incrementally forcing native species like striped bass and shad out of their traditional habitats as competition for food increases and habitat conditions shift towards ones that are more beneficial for the catfish. In order to better promote healthy stocks of native fisheries a multi-pronged effort needs to be put forth across the watershed to both improve habitat conditions for native species while selectively removing blue catfish from the ecosystem via commercial fishing and recreational fishing.
Like blue catfish, Chesapeake Channa (Northern Snakehead) numbers have grown in the Potomac watershed ever since their introduction to the watershed years ago. Thriving in warmer waters and the current habitat conditions in the Potomac, Chesapeake Channa are especially dangerous to the local watershed ecosystem because of their abilities to move short distances through water or in shallow dry land and survive outside of water for extended periods of time. Chesapeake Channa abundance numbers have remained steady over the past few years in Virginia and Maryland tributaries with Maryland seeing larger abundances of 22.6 catches per hour and Virginia further behind with 9.25 in 2023. While relative abundance has fluctuated up and down over the past decade it is apparent that Chesapeake Channa have established a firm foothold in the watershed. States have been working through various strategies to remove them from the watershed for years with special fishing tournaments targeting the fish along with special transportation restrictions.
