Kentucky Fish and Wildlife biologists are reporting an invasive species of bass in Rockcastle County’s Lake Linville.
The Alabama bass is a native to the Mobile Bay Basin in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia, but genetic analysis from Kentucky Fish and Wildlife mark the the first-time they’ve been found in Kentucky.
Fish and Wildlife biologists say they’re concerned the invading species could interbreed with Kentucky’s native smallmouth and spotted bass, raising the risk those populations could be eliminated.
Marcy Anderson is the program coordinator for Fish and WIldlife’s Southeast Fisheries District. She said it’s likely anglers have been moving those bass outside their native water systems.
“It's a great fish for that system, but once you start taking it outside of its native range, that's when we start to see issues. It will readily out-compete largemouth bass in situations down in North Carolina, Tennessee, any place outside of its range,” Anderson said.
Anderson says the invasive species is nearly identical to Kentucky’s native population, with only slight differences. Fish and Wildlife notes some unique traits in Alabama bass include jaw size, lateral band coloration and body coloring.
“We end up using genetic testing to be able to identify the two different species between Alabama bass and spotted bass,” she said. “So just looking at them, you're not going to really tell a lot of difference between the spotted bass and the Alabama bass.”
Biologists are expanding their genetic testing of Lake Linville’s bass population in the meantime in order to manage the invasive species. The extent of the Alabama bass’ presence in the lake is currently unknown.
