THE PERCH FAMILY Percidae

SWAMP DARTER Etheostoma fusiforme (Girard, 1854)

DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE: Native. Swamp darter are found in all major eastern drainages including Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard. Swamp darters are still common in many areas of eastern Massachusetts. Their overall distribution, however, has been reduced due to development of the large eastern cities and towns. The Nantucket population in Gibbs Pond was presumed extirpated in 1935, but it still persists today, with small numbers of specimens being found in 1956, 1981,1987 and 1995. The Martha's Vineyard populations, although never reported previously, are very common in Seth's and Old House Ponds.

TESSELLATED DARTER Etheostoma olmstedi Storer, 1842

DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE: Native. Common in most of the Connecticut River system, in the southeastern parts of the state, and on Martha's Vineyard. They are rare in the northeast drainages; where only a few specimens have been found in the Merrimack River drainage. It is absent from the Hoosic, Charles, upper Deerfield and Nantucket drainages.

YELLOW PERCH Perca flavescens (Mitchill, 1814)

DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE: Yellow perch are distributed statewide where it is a very common warmwater species.

WALLEYE Stizostedion vitreum (Mitchill, 1818)

DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE: Introduced. First introduced into the Connecticut River in the early 1900's from Lake Champlain stock. From 1953 to 1960, stocks from western Lake Erie were introduced into several Massachusetts waterbodies; including Quabbin Reservoir, Lake Chauncey in Westboro, and Assawompsett Pond in Lakeville. More recent experimental stocking of a Lake Oneida strain in the Taunton River system has been carried out since 1980. Today, walleye are found in the northern portion of the Connecticut River as well as in the Assawompsett Pond system of the Taunton (Nemasket) River drainage. Remnant walleye from earlier stocking programs are still found in Quabbin Reservoir, however, their ability to reproduce may have been limited by this reservoir's characteristic acidic waters.