Four Little Fishes
Of Lake Waccamaw
A {•«•noralor ot' iini<|ii<‘ uiimiig'
I lie hikes of America.
By BRANLEY ALLAN BRANSON
Some lakes cradle their depths
among hoary, soaring mountains, and
others, by way of si/e alone, draw
thousands of vacationers to their
shores, and both types often enjoy
extensive fame. Still other lakes be¬
come famous for the fishing they offer
anglers, but when all of these bodies
of water — mammoths the size of the
Kentucky Lake-Lake Barkley com¬
plex. or small city water supplies —
arc carefully compared with regard to
their fish faunas, one comes away
with the impression that they are all
very much alike. Bass and catfish,
perch and trout abound; but there is
nothing peculiar, nothing to distin¬
guish one from the other.
Yet. there are other lakes in the
world, bodies of water so unique be¬
cause of their faunas that they seem
forever to beckon the curious, to prick
the imagination of the scientifically
oriented. Some of these lakes, like the
giants of Siberia and the volcanic
lakes of the Philippines, have physical
beauty as well as biological singularity
to distinguish them. But there arc still
other lakes which have neither size
nor distinctive features of physiogno¬
my to set them apart from dozens of
others and their fame rests almost en¬
tirely upon their distinctive biological
entities.
In this last group is Lake Wac¬
camaw. glinting sun on the coastal
plains of Columbus County. North
Carolina, about 32 miles west of Wil¬
mington. Lake Waccamaw is not an
imposing body of water. Not only is it
a relatively small Like, barely five by
seven miles, but it is also very shal¬
low . only eight to ten feet at
maximum, most of it being much less
than that. The water is gin clear and
12
the north beaches and shores contain
a good deal of white sand. Other parts
of the lake merge almost impercepti¬
bly into surrounding swamplands.
Much of the water arrives in the lake
via several springs, and the only sur¬
face outlet is a very sluggish stream
that insinuates its way into the Wac¬
camaw River.
A Young Lake
Geologically speaking. Lake Wac¬
camaw is very young. It has been
know n since the beginning of the 20th
century, according to the geologic re¬
search of l)r. C. Wythe Cooke, that
the small depression occupied by the
Like was covered b> the sea through¬
out most of the Pleistocene era. Dur¬
ing the last one-fourth of that era.
perhaps no more than a few thousand
years ago. the land rose above the sea.
allowing the great aquifers to the
north to fill the depression with fresh
water.
Those observations on the age of
Lake Waccamaw have important
bearing on the creatures living in
those waters. It is obvious, of course,
that the entire freshwater fauna can be
no more extensive 111 age than the
length of time that has passed since
the recession of the sea and the tilling
of the basin v ith fresh water. More
importantly, however, the lake con¬
tains a relatively large endemic fauna
— fishes, several mollusks. some
crustaceans and others, that is.
species which are restricted to the
area, not being found elsewhere.
Although Lake Waccamaw is not as
rich in endemic species as Russia's
l.akc Baikal (13.000 square miles and
5.000 feet deep), w here the bulk of the
Compered Jo mony other tokei of the world. Woc-
(ona. it small
((•««
by torn milrt) end tKollo». but
because ol ill io>t gc oIoqkoI circumstances, it
contains
о
relotircly large population of tubes,
mollusks and cruitoceont »h*h ore found nowhere
else.
world's free-living species of Hat-
worms occur, or Lake Tanganyika
(12.7(H) square miles), with its swarms
of closely related fishes, it does qual¬
ify for membership in this elite group
of lakes which arc famous for exten¬
sive and rapid speciation (the process
of forming new species from preex¬
isting ones).
This, of course, takes time, for
species arc not born in an instant.
Their genetic systems have to he
modified by isolation from parental
stocks, by inbreeding, and by the
build up of mutations and other
chromosomal differences. This usu¬
ally requires long periods of time.
However, in the case of Lake Wac¬
camaw the amount of time available
for speciation has been short, only a
few thousand years.
Although several groups are present
in the lake, as mentioned previously,
the fishes are of particular interest.
The lake abounds in predaceous
fishes, chiefly largcmouth bass, yel¬
low perch, white catfish, w hite perch,
warmouth sunfish. crappie. bluegill.
redbelly sunfish. pumpkinsccd. bow-
fin. eel. longnose gar and the vora¬
cious chain pickerel. Although most
of these species devour various in¬
sects. crustaceans, small turtles and
amphibians when the opportunity
arises, all of them feed very heavily
upon fishes. Within the lake, there are
four main forage fishes, second links
in the inexorable food chains that
support the predators.
THE STATE. EtBRUARY 1983
