- I'm out on the Cape Fear River.

Somewhere in the water under this boat there's a tiny little fish called the Cape Fear shiner.

It's actually endangered and scientists are working to help boost populations.

[soft guitar music] The Cape Fear shiner is endemic to the Cape Fear River Basin meaning it's the only place in the world where they live.

So that's where scientists like Brena go to collect and study them.

- Cool we can see the river.

- Is this the Deep River?

- Yes so this is the Deep River running along here.

And what you can see coming in right there is the Rocky River.

All right, let's get down there.

- [Michelle] Besides the hike into the river it's not always easy to find these tiny fish.

- It's really challenging 'cause you kinda have to learn what feels shinery, so to speak.

This is the type of habitat that they really like.

These rocky areas with scattered pools.

There's some riffle areas, some little runs.

They'll find an area behind a rock where it's kind of sheltered and they don't have to work very hard.

And they'll hang out there, wait for some tasty food items to go by, jump out and grab it, and then go back and hang out in their little resting area.

- [Michelle] There are several types of shiners in these rivers but Cape Fear shiners stand out, sometimes literally.

- It's a small shiner that gets maybe about that big, maximum size.

They are a little silvery fish with a dark stripe down its side but then when they're in their breeding colors they turn brilliant gold and yellow.

They're really amazing looking fish.

Like things you only think of on a tropical reef or something.

But there's all kinds of species like that in our rivers and our backyards.

- [Michelle] But it's not just what's on the outside that counts.

Compared to other shiner species they have extra long intestines that allow them to digest both insects and plants.

- That probably gives them the ability to be a little more adaptable.

These rivers are really changeable in terms of water levels and the types of conditions so that would be an advantage to them.

[soft music] - [Michelle] Despite this advantage, their numbers are small.

Human history in this river basin has impacted today's populations and their future within this ecosystem is threatened.

The Cape Fear River Basin spans the fall line, a geological line of erosion between the Piedmont and Coastal Plain.

Rivers that flow over this drop in elevation have been used in the past as a source of energy.

- So there are lots of old hydropower dams scattered throughout this area.

During that time period.

One, there was lots of effluent and chemicals going into the river from mills and other industrial efforts and also dams created barriers for a lot of aquatic species like fish and crayfish.

Preventing them from moving between their habitats like they would have.

- [Michelle] Not being able to move between different parts of the river to mix with other populations decreases genetic diversity which makes the whole population more vulnerable.

- Just by nature of being an endemic species that's only found in one place if something were to happen.

See we had a big chemical spill upstream in the Deep River that flowed down.

This species is really open, really vulnerable to being just wiped out by one event.

So that's one of the reasons why we wanna try to bolster the populations in the Cape Fear and the Hofs.

So if something like that were to happen, or even if there was a big storm event and they weren't able to deal with that very well, we would have those other populations to provide what the service calls redundancy.

- [Michelle] In order to create this redundancy the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission partners with other organizations to catch adult Cape Fear shiners and bring them to the National Fish hatchery on the coast in Edenton.

It's open to visitors and there's an aquarium on site where you can see some of the other species they've worked with since the hatchery was established in 1898.

- Since then we've produced about 12 different species and literally millions of fish from this facility.

- [Michelle] The hatchery was created to work with fish like American shad and Atlantic striped bass but they've started working with non-food fish species like shiners and even gopher frogs.

- We are definitely moving into more conservation of endangered species and threatened species.

I think we are all recognizing that there's more work to be done to help these guys out, and so we just wanna be a part of it.

- [Michelle] The Cape Fear shiner is a recent addition to the hatchery and Brandi is in charge of rearing these precious shiny babies.

Starting with a new species, it's like a whole new- - Yeah you have like a clean slate and it's challenging.

- [Michelle] Figuring out how to successfully breed a wild species in captivity takes trial and error and they've gotten creative about how to make them feel right at home.

This is meant to simulate where they would nest in the wild?

- Correct.

They will spawn over slow moving pools with gravel, cobble and all and they do enjoy vegetation.

So our vegetation is yarn, green yarn.

We glued some rocks around this Tupperware and there's a quarter inch mesh so the eggs can just drop right in and we can easily pull out and collect.

- People say that scientists aren't artists, that they're not creative but I think this is evidence that that's not true.

- Very true.

[Brandi and Michelle laughing] - [Michelle] They check the nest for tiny transparent eggs every morning.

- [Brandi] See the two right there?

- [Michelle] Oh yeah, yeah.

Little baby Cape Fear shiners.

- [Brandi] Yep.

- [Michelle] Future shiners.

- [Brandi] But that's the beginning.

- [Michelle] The hatchery team raises this new generation of fish until the fall, and then they release them back into rivers in the Cape Fear River Basin.

[soft music] The project started in 2020 and the first few years didn't yield many new fish but once the setup was dialed in they started to see results.

- It went from zero to 517 fish released into the wild last year.

That's just science.

You know, working with nature you're always learning, you're always learning.

- This little fish.

It's tiny, it might seem kind of insignificant.

Is it an indicator species of the health of these river systems?

- Yeah so all of our aquatic species are basically serving the purpose of, you know what we traditionally think of canaries in a coal mine.

They are indicators, they live in our water supply, breathe in it, eat in it, try to survive in it.

So if they're in trouble, that tells us that our communities are in trouble too.

But vice versa, if we have rivers that can support healthy native communities, diverse species that means they can support our communities too.

So it's really important to pay attention to these animals.

- [Brandi] They're special.

They're special to our state, and I mean we don't wanna lose them.

That's some of our prize possessions.