NANFA Board of Directors and Member Services

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NANFA Board of Directors

Fritz pausing for a photo while performing some research

Fritz Rohde
President
Wilmington, NC

Fritz Rohde is a biologist with the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Division where he splits his time among several saltwater ventures. His real research interests, however, lie in the freshwater realm. He has co-authored a book on the freshwater fishes of the eastern seaboard and is the primary author and photographer for "Freshwater Fishes of South Carolina" released in 2009. In his spare time, he has described a few species and co-hosted the 2007 NANFA convention in Greensboro, NC. His interests in NANFA include seeing the high quality of AC maintained, keep continuing good relations with local DNRs and academia, opening dialogue with members, and keeping up the standards set at the annual meetings.

Brian with his daughter on the Kokosing River, March 20, 2011

Brian Zimmerman
Vice President
Gambier, OH

I have been interested in North American Native Fish for almost my whole life. My father has photos of me playing in a stream when I was 2 years old. My parents got me interested in reading by getting me fish books because I had no interest in reading otherwise. By the time I was in middle school I knew I wanted to work with fish and by high school it was definitely natives. While still in high school I began breeding fish in aquariums and built a 1/4 acre wetland just to breed my own grass pickerel in my parents backyard. I then went to college at Heidelberg University in Tiffin Ohio where I double majored in water resources and environmental biology. Also while there I started Zimmerman's Fish and began selling native fish to other enthusiasts. I then moved on to Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green Ohio where I got a masters in Aquatic Ecology and completed my thesis on a study of Redside Dace with the help of the NANFA conservation grant. I have still yet to find a permanent job since completing my masters degree but have had some interesting temporary positions with a couple of consulting companies and the Ohio Division of Wildlife. While working for ODW I revamped their fish ID webpage so that it included descriptions and photos of all Ohio fish species. Apparently I impressed them enough with my work there because after that temporary position ended I was asked to work on a project through Ohio State University funded by ODW to revise the well known (at least to fish people) book Fishes of Ohio by M.B. Trautman. Hopefully I will be working on this project for several year to come and eventually provide a nice new publication for our membership and other native fish enthusiast.

Michael Wolfe
Secretary, Board Chair
Statham, GA

I really believe in the NANFA mission statement. It shows a natural progression that people go through. Many people come to NANFA for only the first thing "appreciation... of the continent's native fishes." Appreciation can mean angling, it can mean aquarium husbandry, it can even mean, "hey, look at that pretty little fish my three year old just caught." That's how I got into natives. I had aquariums and my daughter wanted one of her own. And 'Fishes of Alabama and the Mobile Basin' had just come out. And living in Alabama I bought it out of curiosity. Soon I was in a local stream with a couple of little kids seining up "bait". After the initial exposure and appreciation, I moved on to the "study... of the continent's native fishes." This didn't mean a formal education. But it does mean an intellectual curiosity that's been acted upon, invested in, and never fully sated. And I think there are more people out there, willing to act on that curiosity if we show them how to see first-hand the "continent's native fishes" in their native habitat. And that's when people begin to value the fish, and the habitat enough to be interested in the "conservation of the continent's native fishes."

Michael with his official NANFA collecting shirt at Williamson Swamp Creek

Tom Watson
Treasurer, Membership Coordinator, Aquarium Society Liaison
Federal Way, WA

I first became involved in fishkeeping when, at ten years old, I was given three homemade 45 gallon aquariums. The catch was that I had to transport them the mile and a half from a friend's house to my own. Because I feared I would be told no if I asked permission to bring them home, I carried them there without assistance, a process that took most of three days. Later that summer, I caught six brown bullhead babies in Lake Washington and transported them home in a paper cup. They immediately killed all of my tropicals.

I joined NANFA in 1999. Recently, I completed the scanning and indexing of all issues of American Currents from 1972 to the present. These issues are now available on a two-CD set. While there are no fish collecting opportunities here in the State of Washington, I occasionally take some time for collecting when on business trips in states where it is legal.

My vocation is that of a "jack of all trades" for a large corporation where I help to develop and deploy manufacturing and procurement strategies. I have served on the Boards of two non-profit organizations and was president of "For the Children of the World" for six years.

I am deeply interested in the preservation of native fish species and the habitat that nurtures them. I firmly believe that informed hobbyists can contribute as much toward this goal as fisheries professionals. It has always been my experience that diversity in knowledge, education, and background brings strength to any organization. If you read through the past issues of American Currents, it becomes clear that that is where NANFA has excelled. It is important that NANFA continues to support initiatives that will encourage the same diversity in the future.

Tom in front of an Invertebrate tank with native snails and Dwarf Crayfish (Cambarellus shufeldti)

Martin Moore
Jackson, MS

My interest in fishes began when I was maybe five or six years old. My family went to a fair and there was a booth where you could throw ping-pong balls at a table full of goldfish in little bowls. If the ball landed in a bowl, you got the goldfish. I missed, but (as the story was related to me) I cried so hard that the lady gave me the goldfish anyway. Whether she did this from pity or just to reduce the noise level was never made clear. Fast forward to high-school, when I was officially bitten by the tropical fish bug. I quickly exhausted our library's meager supply of books and then figured out how to take the bus into downtown Atlanta where the public library had more reading material. I formed a high-school aquarium club that had maybe five or six members in it, but we met after school for three years. In those days I was aware of natives but had no idea how to go about collecting them. I worked for a pet shop and later a wholesale distributor of fish and pet supplies. I took over my parents' basement and established a combination fish room/laboratory (don't ask!). I was totally immersed in all things fish. I attended the University of Georgia and obtained a B.S. in Zoology. This was when I learned how to ID natives, how to use a seine, where to go - the experience changed my interest from an ever-growing collection of exotic oddballs to Green Sunfish and Nondescript Silvery Minnows (NSM's). Then I found the internet, and although I tried to be the first person to put up a website about natives, I soon discovered that someone had beaten me to it: Jay Delong, who was NANFA's webmaster then. I didn't know it at the time, but this was the beginning of the golden era of NANFA. I attended my first convention hosted by Elmer Guerri who (not to slight the efforts of Casper and BG who hosted conventions before him) really set the standard for how conventions should be done. I had so much fun that I volunteered to host the next one in Jackson, MS. All of which pretty much brings us up to date. My other interests (they are varied and sundry) include guitar (primarily New Age) and shooting sports. My profession is Retail Manager. This is my second (noncontiguous) term on the Board.

Martin posing with Smokey The Bear on NANFA trip in Mississippi 2002

josh
Josh doing some NANFA outreach

Josh Blaylock
, KY

Growing up in Southeastern Kentucky, I spent a lot of time in creeks, streams, and mountains. Fishing in the waterways and hiking the mountains gave me a great love for my state. My enjoyment of nature and Kentucky came together around 2008 when I found NANFA while researching native fish aquariums. My love for natives has grown over the years. The more I read and researched the deeper appreciation I have for our native fishes. Outreach, education, and protection have been a priority for me. These priorities lead me to the Kentucky Regional Representative for NANFA in 2012, and now to the board of directors. I am also a member of Kentucky Waterways Alliance & Kentucky River Watershed Watch. In 2011 I started my own webpage, www.kycreeks.com, which is dedicated to the beauty, diversity, and conservation of the waterways within Kentucky. I strive to continue outreach and education about native fishes, as this is the way to get others to care and get involved in their protection.

matt
Matt in the stream during a NANFA convention field trip

Matt DeLaVega
, OH

Member Services

Bruce Stallsmith
NANFA Research Grant Chair
Huntsville, AL

Bruce (right) with Steven Ellis during a regional gathering at the Sipsey River, AL.

Michael Wolfe
Regional Outreach Coordinator
Statham, GA

Michael checking out the fishes of Little Rose Creek.

Konrad Schmidt & Fritz Rohde
American Currents Co-Editors
St. Paul, MN & Wilmington, NC

In the water with Konrad and Fritz