Experts are sounding the alarm after an invasive species of bass has bred with local fish to create a new, dangerous fish.
What's happening?
According to Wired2Fish, scientists in North Carolina are concerned that multiple species of native bass in the region are being wiped out by a new, hybridized version created by an invasive species: Alabama bass.
"We're concerned that our pure-strain smallmouth bass fishery in North Carolina soon could be gone — especially in the mountain rivers and lakes," said Kin Hodges, a state fisheries biologist for 29 years. "Aggressive Alabama bass are much smaller than other black bass species, and in time they can hybridize and diminish larger pure-strain native bass species. That hybridization eventually will gravely impact the size of bass North Carolina anglers have historically caught."
Alabama bass have spread from their homes into waterways across the American South; they breed faster and outcompete native species for resources, and because they can interbreed with those native species of bass, they eventually push them out entirely.
Why are Alabama bass important?
Alabama bass are significantly smaller than the species of bass that are native to North Carolina; where you may find 5-pound smallmouth bass and 6-to-8-pound largemouth bass, they will quickly be replaced by 2-pound Alabama bass and hybrid species. They've been in North Carolina since at least the 1980s, but because they look incredibly similar to native species, fishers have simply thrown them back, assuming they were young versions of the local bass. This allowed them to spread with little threat from humans.
When native species are outcompeted for resources by invasive species like the Alabama bass, it can very quickly disrupt local ecosystems that rely on the balance those native species provide. Given the speed with which Alabama bass and their hybrids reproduce, they risk upsetting that balance by consuming more resources than local small and largemouth bass would on their own.
"This is a cautionary tale for other states nationwide — that Alabama bass could be a potential threat to smallmouth, spotted, and largemouth fisheries everywhere," Hodges says.
Tennessee experienced a similar phenomenon in recent years, resulting in the state changing its regulations about fishing for smallmouth bass in 2025, allowing fishers to keep multiple smaller fish in an effort to try and fight their spread.
"This is potentially a lot worse than the invasive snakehead fish species many anglers know about," Hodges said. "The 'Bama-bass spread could have a much more devastating impact on fishing for bass. In the foreseeable future we could lose all our big bass native species to small 1-to-2-pound Alabama bass. We've got to get our anglers educated about this threat to their bass fishing. If we can educate fishermen about the Bama bass problem, we can stop the invasive species spread to other waters."
What's being done about Alabama bass?
Unfortunately, once the Alabama bass has gained traction in a waterway or fishery, they're incredibly tough to eradicate. They breed constantly and spread like wildfire.
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Definitely 👍 But North Carolina is fighting back. Fisheries staff are removing them from the water whenever they find them, and have started an education campaign encouraging fishers to join them in that fight, and keep the smaller fish.
"Every Alabama bass that anglers keep makes room for a native bass to prosper," said Hodges. "Once 'Bama bass hybridize with smallmouth bass in a body of water, the problem is almost impossible to eliminate."
Signage has gone up at fishing sites around the state, explaining how to differentiate Alabama bass from the local species, and encouraging fishers to keep more of what they catch.
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