Identification: Becker (1983); Page and Burr (1991); Jenkins and Burkhead (1994).
Size: Maximum size: 109 cm.
Native Range: Eastern North America. St. Lawrence-Great Lakes (including Georgian Bay and lakes Nipissing and Simcoe, Ontario) and Mississippi River Basin drainages from Quebec to northern Minnesota and south to the Gulf of Mexico; Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain from the Susquehanna River drainage in southeastern Pennsylvania to the Colorado River in Texas (Page and Burr 1991).
Table 1. States with nonindigenous occurrences, the earliest and latest observations in each state, and the tally and names of HUCs with observations†. Names and dates are hyperlinked to their relevant specimen records. The list of references for all nonindigenous occurrences of Amia calva are found here.
Means of Introduction: Past Bowfin introductions have been attributed mainly to intentional stockings in ponds, lakes, and rivers (Jenkins and Burkhead 1994). Jenkins and Burkhead (1994) provided detailed background information on Bowfin introductions into Virginia and several other eastern states. They reported that Bowfin stocking was apparently popular 20-40 years ago. The Pennsylvania Fish Commission stocked Bowfin in two lakes mentioned above (Denoncourt et al. 1975a). Bowfin were introduced to the Gunpowder River in Maryland in 1971 when stocked ponds overflowed (Pearson and Ward 1972). They were also intentionally stocked in ponds in northern and western Maryland in the 1960s (Pearson and Ward 1972). Many of the original introductions into Connecticut were illegal stockings and were eradicated (Whitworth 1996). The Kansas report is of a single fish stocked accidentally into a fee-fishing pond with other fishes taken from Minnesota or northwestern Iowa (Cross and Collins 1995). In Wisconsin, Bowfin may have been stocked as part of the fish rescue operations from the Mississippi River backwaters in the 1930s, and/or it may have gained access to the Lake Michigan drainage via the Wisconsin-Fox Canal (Becker 1983). Bowfin have been intentionally stocked in private lakes in Missouri and records from the Missouri River in this state may be the result of escapes from these lakes (Pflieger 1971, 1975).
Status: This species has been introduced into or reported in Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin; it is probably established in most areas of the states into which it has been introduced. Not established in Kansas; the report is of a single fish.
Remarks: Burr and Warren (1986) reported that Kentucky records of this species from east of the Green River represent waif and/or probable introductions. Pflieger (1978) reported that Missouri River records resulted from Bowfin escapes from privately stocked lakes; however, Burgess and Gilbert (in Lee et al. 1980 et seq.) viewed these records as representing natural occurrences. Although Bowfin are voracious, piscivorous predators, they will consume virtually any animal small enough to eat (Lee et al. 1980 et seq.). Consequently, introduced Bowfin pose a potential threat to native fishes and their prey.
Pearson, J. G., and F. P. Ward. 1972. A new record of the bowfin, Amia calva Linnaeus, in the upper Chesapeake Bay. Chesapeake Science 13(4):323-324.
Stiles, E. W. 1978. Vertebrates of New Jersey. Edmund W. Stiles, Somerset, NJ.
Whitworth, W. R. 1996. Freshwater Fishes of Connecticut. State Geological and Natural History Survey of Connecticut, Bulletin 114.