Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 9, 1993 TAG: 9302090257
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WILL TROUT SWIM OFF WITH TITLE?
There's a move afoot to knight the brook trout as Virginia's official state fish. So far, the proposal hasn't stirred much water, but only because nobody outside of Richmond knows about it. Few people inside Richmond know about it.A bill elevating the brook trout to officialdom was introduced only 10 days ago by Del. Roscoe Reynolds, a Martinsville Democrat. This is not to be confused with a similar measure that would make the scallop the state fossil that is also pending.
If the brook trout is so honored, it would join the elite ranks of such symbols as the American foxhound, our official state dog. The dogwood, which does yeoman duty as state tree and state flower. The oyster, the state shell. The square dance, our official state dance. The Chesapeake Bay Deadrise, which has, since 1988, been our official state boat.
There is, of course, the tiger swallowtail butterfly, which endured a decade-long, drag-out fight with the praying mantis to emerge as the Virginia state insect.
None of which means squat.
A tiger swallowtail is just as likely to fry on the electrified cage of a bug zapper as a lesser-recognized insect.
But that is not to say that when the audacious Reynolds proposes the brook trout, the rest of us should just grant him carte blanche on the official state fish issue.
BLOCK THAT FISH! BLOCK THAT FISH!
The brook trout is a fine, dignified fish, and a native, to boot. Brook trout thrive in the icy little ribbons of water that trickle from the mountain flanks in the western third of Virginia.
But the brook trout is hardly an original idea. It already appears as the official fish of several states, including the dreaded Pennsylvania. Of course, Virginia also employs the cardinal and the dogwood - hacks on the official symbol circuit - so maybe creativity is not an issue.
John Ney, who toils in the world of fish for Virginia Tech, likes the idea of the brook trout.
"It's my personal favorite all-time fish because it's the most beautiful fish God ever made," said Ney.
Ney once found that a shipment of alleged fish to a New River fish eatery actually was a frozen bale of haggis - a Scottish delicacy of minced sheep guts and oatmeal. That is another story for another day.
But Don Orth, also a Virginia Tech fish man, says the brook trout "is doomed. It only says something about the mountain region."
Orth polled a group of third-graders not long ago about the possibilities of a state fish. The brook trout and the striped bass - both fish that humans love to maim on hooks - had some supporters. But the Roanoke hog sucker showed surprising clout among the youngsters, said Orth.
"The problem with choosing a state fish," says Orth philosophically, "is that old eastern vs. western dichotomy."
The fish we have in Western Virginia don't live in eastern Virginia. And vice versa.
The American eel probably traverses the state, but is not a positive role model, says Orth. He also mentioned the stone roller, which is a variety on the hog sucker theme and so has some obvious public-relations problems of its own.
Enter Robert Jenkins, the Roanoke College biology professor who has carved for himself a reputation as one of Virginia's premier fish researchers.
"This goes back a while," says Jenkins, who until Monday didn't know there was a state-fish debate brewing. "You've hit a nerve."
Eighteen years ago, Jenkins first nominated the mountain redbelly dace as Virginia's state fish. The idea was snubbed. A state operative wrote that the dace might not be able to "capture the imagination" of the Virginia public.
Unfazed, Jenkins still sings praises of the dace. Sure, it's just a 3-inch-long minnow. But it's common in the mountains and in the Piedmont, and during the breeding season from April through June the male is gaudy enough to qualify for a dentist's-office aquarium.
"It's the most ornate fish in Virginia," boasts Jenkins. "It's an amazing fish. And its range doesn't extend that far outside Virginia."
Orth says that tapping the mountain redbelly dace might imply that Virginians pride some of nature's smaller embellishments over the thrashing, hooked gamefish.
"And I'm not sure that's true," he says.
Clearly we need to talk about this some more, before legislators spring headlong into the potentially rash choice of the brook trout as Virginia's fish.
There is also the issue of whether we want our official fish routinely sauteed in butter with a touch of garlic. This does not, after all, happen very often to the American foxhound.
Block that fish.
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GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1993