DANDRIDGE, TN (WVLT / shared by WOKI) – When the remnants of Hurricane Helene ripped through East Tennessee, it impacted not only people, but also our wildlife.

On Wednesday, biologists with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and Tennessee Valley Authority surveyed fish in Douglas Lake to learn how the fish are doing after the storm.

Biologists said it’s a critical study to conduct after Helene because they are the indicator of the water’s quality.

“The thing about fish is they’re the canary in the coal mine. They’re the indicator of what’s going on with water quality,” said John Justice, a TVA reservoir fisheries biologist.

Biologists said sport fish can be the most telling for the overall health of the lake. By monitoring those species, they can make assumptions about the food web below them.

“The whole fish community has to work together to have a good healthy fish community,” Kurt Lakin, a TVA reservoir fisheries biologist.

The biologists compared the checks they’re doing to an annual wellness exam you get at the doctor’s office, like marking down length and weight and also looking for any injuries or diseases.

“We enter all that information into a computer, and we track those trends over time to see if its improving, staying the same or getting worse,” Lakin said.

To get a clear picture after Helene is going to take some time, but they said the outlook is positive.

“From the few samples that we saw this morning and the samples TWRA did last week, it looks like the fisherie is holding up pretty well,” Lakin said. “From what we’ve seen so far, it looks like the fish look healthy, and there’s quite a few of them.”

Good news for the fish and the economy, counties surrounding the lake rely heavily on recreational tourism, like fishing.

The biologists say their work is far from over. They’re going to continue to look at the fish populations and keep track to decide if there are any large impacts from the storm.

Story courtesy of WVLT