Should Creationists Brook Loss of a Trout? | The Institute for Creation Research

Should Creationists Brook Loss of a Trout?

Should a freshwater stream be restored to make it habitable for a failing fish population such as brook trout?1 It makes sense that creationists proactively care about biodiversity and environmental stewardship, but why should evolutionists care?2 These real-world questions are illustrated by Maryland’s Jabez Branch, a tributary of the Severn River in Maryland. Jabez Branch is the only stream in the state’s Coastal Plain that is—or maybe was—home to brook trout.1

Jabez Branch’s critical problem that prevents it from serving as a critical habitat for brook trout is its temperature. When stream water gets too hot, it’s a hostile habitat for brook trout.

Unlike the nonnative and more adaptable brown trout [Salmo trutta], brook trout [Salvelinus fontinalis]…are typically found in clear, cold streams and rivers in the Piedmont region or higher elevation headwaters of the [Chesapeake] Bay watershed. Downstream, in the Coastal Plain, the water gets too hot in the summer for brook trout to survive. Jabez Branch, however, has been an anomaly, with cool springs feeding it and the shade-casting boughs of forest along much of its banks.1

So, what changed this previously cool-enough brook? Thanks to expanded highways (including Interstate 97) and suburban sprawl, storm-sewer runoff drains land-warmed rainwater into Jabez Branch, slightly increasing stream water temperature. Also, the surges of rain runoff erode stream banks, draining soil sediments and organic nutrients into stream flow, worsening water quality factors for brook trout sensitivities.1,3

But brown trout are less sensitive, so they compete better in such circumstances. According to repeated monitoring done by electrofishing, this causes population decline of brook trout—they must detect and abandon overly warm streams.1,3

But, from the brown trout’s—or an evolutionist’s—perspective, who cares if warmed stream waters discourage populational success for local brook trout?

Creationists appreciate how God values biodiversity, as Noah’s Ark illustrates.2 But how can evolutionary thinking promote biodiversity? Evolutionists have no moral basis for valuing biodiversity.2,4

Brook trout losses are brown trout gains, exhibiting self-promoting wildlife competition, what Darwinian evolutionists call survival of the fittest or natural selection.

Yet the sophistic phrase “survival of the fittest” illustrates the defect of logic called tautology (i.e., redundancy fallacy, proving nothing) because evolutionists define populational fitness by survival, so “fitness” really means that whoever survives was fit (or “lucky”) enough to survive—in other words, the survivors survived.4

Also, as ICR’s Dr. Randy Guliuzza has amply documented, the phrase “natural selection” is an animistic/magic-word synonym, depicting a personified nature that somehow environmentally prefers (favors or disfavors) to select one animal over another.4

Worse, survival-of-the-fittest terminology is harnessed to rationalize terrible cruelties, such as the eugenics movement,4 as if might makes right—a fact historically illustrated in World War II by both the Nazi Germans and the Imperial Japanese.5

In sum, biodiversity appreciation and conservation ethics clash with evolutionary ecology concepts.2,5 However, appreciating and conserving biodiversity as Noah once did makes perfect sense for biblical creationists.2,3

References

  1. Wheeler, T. B. 2021. A Tussle Over a Trout Stream—with No Trout in It: Plan to Restore Stretch of Jabez Branch in Maryland Pits Anglers against State. Chesapeake Bay Journal. 31 (1): 12-13. The name Jabez hearkens back to 1 Chronicles 4:9-10, illustrating providential success. Ironically, as electrofishing indicates, Jabez Branch is now an example of ongoing failure, ecologically speaking—at least as it relates to the stream’s native population of brook trout. Electrofishing is a relatively harmless research method, using electrical shocks to temporarily stun fish, causing them to surface (where they can be seen and counted) before they recover and return to submerged swimming.
  2. Genesis 6–9 and Deuteronomy 22:6-7, 20:19-20. See also Johnson, J. J. S. 2012. Valuing God’s Variety. Acts & Facts. 41 (9): 8-9.
  3. Finfish practice continuous environmental tracking to obtain vital information about their physical environment. See Johnson, J. J. S. 2016. Even Fish Need to Know! Acts & Facts. 45 (1): 21.
  4. Guliuzza, R. J. 2016. Major Evolutionary Blunders: Survival of the Fittest, Eugenics, and Abortion. Acts & Facts. 45 (1): 12-14.
  5. “Most Americans know that Adolf Hitler argued evolutionary science to justify his genocidal mass murders of Jews and Slavs,…[however] Japanese propagandists sang the same social Darwinism song before and during World War II.” Johnson, J. J. S. 2012. Hidden in Plain View: Evolution’s Counterfeit History Is Everywhere. Acts & Facts. 41 (2): 8-9.

* Dr. Johnson is Associate Professor of Apologetics and Chief Academic Officer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Cite this article: James J. S. Johnson, J.D., Th.D. 2021. Should Creationists Brook Loss of a Trout?. Acts & Facts. 50 (8).

The Latest
NEWS
Slowing Plates Support High Flood Boundary
Flood geologists have predicted that plate motion slowed at the end of the Flood year, and now conventional scientists are finding it to be true. A...

NEWS
Microscopic Ingenuity: Stentor and the Case for Intelligent Design
What if the smallest creatures held the biggest clues to life’s design? A 2025 study in Nature Physics investigates the remarkable behaviors of...

CREATION PODCAST
Dr. Jeff Tomkins | A Scientist's Journey to Creationism | The...
ICR’s science staff have spent more than 50 years researching scientific evidence that refutes evolutionary philosophy...

NEWS
Early Fish Evolution?
The discovery of a new species of a plant or animal would probably not spark much excitement to the non-scientist. But in this case, the conditions...

NEWS
Make Plans to Attend Our Estate Planning Workshop at the Discovery...
Did you know that up to 75% of Americans over 18 have no retirement or estate plans? Don’t wait to prepare for the future. Join us on Saturday, October...

NEWS
Fossil Confusion in Ethiopia: Are Evolutionary Trees Built on...
A new study published in Nature describes the discovery of 13 fossilized teeth from the Ledi-Geraru site in Ethiopia. They have been dated to between...

NEWS
The Only Mesozoic Dragonfly in Canada—Is a Dragonfly
In 2023, an undergraduate student from McGill University discovered a new dragonfly species in Alberta, Canada. In fact, “This is the first ever...

CREATION PODCAST
Dr. Jake Hebert | Journey to ICR | The Creation Podcast: Episode...
ICR’s science staff have spent more than 50 years researching scientific evidence that refutes evolutionary philosophy...

NEWS
Oldest Evidence of Butterflies
Insects such as the ubiquitous butterfly belong to the huge phylum Arthropoda (creatures having paired, jointed appendages and a chitinous exoskeleton)....

NEWS
Another Big Mistake in Evolution
The strange and wonderful coelacanth1 has long been a challenge to evolutionists. The coelacanth has long been hailed as an ancestor...