Fred C. (Fritz) Rohde

Ichthyologist, Naturalist, Photographer

Born November 5, 1947 in Iowa, USA

Fritz, as he is known to everyone, currently works for NOAA Fisheries, based in North Carolina, on diadromous fishes in the Southeast US, particularly in getting them upstream of dams to historical spawning/nursery areas. During his long career he has published many scientific articles on freshwater and saltwater fishes, focusing on fishes found in North Carolina and South Carolina, but he has collected extensively throughout the Southeast. He has co-authored two books on the freshwater fishes of those two states, which have included his photographs.

Fritz serves on the Board of Directors of the North American Native Fishes Association (NANFA) and is currently is the President. He also is co-editor of their quarterly journal, American Currents.

In his spare time, Fritz is heavily involved with the NCFishes.com website. The Fishes of North Carolina is an independent project with the goal of collecting, photographing, and aiding in the identification of all known freshwater, and as many marine fishes as possible, from the state of North Carolina. The group is in the process of developing an electronic “book” on the freshwater fishes of North Carolina, which will include a synopsis of each family, identification keys, and photographs.

Since 2002, he has collected fishes in Mexico (2 times), Honduras (2), Costa Rica (3), Peru (4), Brazil (1), and Thailand (2). The Peru and Brazil trips were focused on Rivulus killifishes.