Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Nov 04/02) - If anyone has seen the freshwater four-horn sculpin skulking around, Lee Sheppard would like to know about it.

Fisheries biologist Melanie Van Gerwin-Toyne, with the Gwich'in Renewable Resource Board, has been helping Lee Sheppard get the word out about the four-horn sculpin. - Lynn Lau/NNSL photo

It's been years since scientists have had an update on Myoxocephalus quadricornis, and now Sheppard, a marine biology student from Newfoundland is preparing a report for the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) to update its status.

The marine four-horn sculpin is found all over the Arctic, but the freshwater form is considered rare. Ten years ago, the small, bottom-dwelling fish was listed as vulnerable.

"The freshwater forms are very sensitive to pollution," says Sheppard. "Heavy metal pollution causes curvatures in the spine and affects their swimming capabilities."

In 1992, a biologist reported that mining activity at Garrow's Lake on Little Cornwallis Island, was hurting the population of freshwater sculpins there. Since then, not much else has been written about them.

About 10,000 years ago, pockets of four-horn sculpins were stranded inland when the glaciers retreated. They've since become genetically distinct from their marine cousins as they adapted to the new freshwater environment.

Sheppard says the freshwater forms have been found all over the circumpolar world, including the NWT. In the Mackenzie Delta, they've been reported at Eskimo Lakes near Tuktoyaktuk, and Husky Lake on Campbell Island. They've also been found on Victoria Island, Ellesmere Island, Little Cornwallis Island, Somerset Island and Hepburn Island.

Since putting out the request for information in early October, Sheppard hasn't heard any reports back yet. If you've seen this fish, he'd like to hear from you. Phone him collect at 1-709-738-0103 or e-mail him at n83gls@mun.ca to report a sculpin sighting.