A Little Bit More
I don’t want to give the impression that suckers move upstream from the ocean like salmon; they don’t. But they do tend to remain in larger bodies of water throughout most of the year and ascend smaller creeks and rivers to find spawning locations each spring.
Suckers often get a bad “rap” from fishermen believing they eat gamefish eggs, but studies have not shown suckers to be harmful to gamefish populations. In fact, just the opposite is true. Young suckers are an especially important food source for gamefish – without young suckers as a food, gamefish populations would not be as healthy as they are.
Usually sucker spawning takes place at dusk or at night with a female dropping as many as 20,000 to 50,000 eggs. The eggs are slightly adhesive and adhere to the rocks as they settle in the cracks and crevices of the bottom gravel. In the safety of the gravel, the eggs develop and hatch within 8-11 days, depending on water temperature. Once hatched the young are prey to a large number of predators but for those that do reach adulthood, they may live as many as 12 years or longer – a long time for many fish.
Although suckers may not be one of our more “beautiful” fishes, they do represent an important part of a healthy aquatic system. The White Sucker is especially widespread in North America and may very well be one of our more numerous fishes on the continent – it probably lives in your own local waters.
Activities
Science & Geography – Top to Bottom
Objectives: Better understanding of local geography
Materials: Local maps
As a boy growing up in western Ohio on a small creek, I fished, swam, and played in the waters of a creek for 8 years but never questioned where the creek came from nor where it was going. This is an activity that can be a real eye-opener for both children and adults. How many of us live our lives in any given area without really understanding the “geography” around which we live? I think if you and your students try out this activity, you’ll have a better appreciation of your neighborhood.
1. Using a fairly detailed, local map, determine where you live or your school is located and then find your nearest body of running water (not a lake or ocean) is located. For most of you, you’ll have waters that run year round, not intermittently, but if you live in an especially arid area, you may need to use a temporary stream.
2. Have the students look closely at their map and follow your waterway upstream (they may have trouble determining which direction to go at first) all the way to the source (headwaters). If you run into a fork of an incoming stream, choose the largest of the two and continue upstream. If your map is rather detailed, you should be able to get a point where the stream begins. Note this location as best you can.
3. Now go back to the starting point (closest to where you’re located) and go downstream until you reach a point where your stream enters a larger stream and note that point. If a smaller stream enters your stream, don’t count that as your stream’s end but continue further downstream.
4. For some of you, there will be some large distances from “source to end” while others will have a very short distance to cover.
This exercise should provide you with two important geographic locations for students – the origin and the end point for their “local” stream or river. Ask how many knew these two places at the beginning of the exercise – probably none!
Key Concepts
Behavior and Regulation, Life Cycles, Reproduction
Questions
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