![Male biologist wearing a dry suits standing in a river tying an anchored rope to a post holding a net](/sites/default/files/styles/large_square/public/staff-profile-image/Jason-Mays-sets-fish-net-Credit-Gary-Peeples.jpg?h=406ac507&itok=QDQRKOOZ)
Fish and wildlife biologist
Address
160 Zillicoa St.
Asheville, NC 28801
United States
Contact Jason Mays
Areas of expertise
Aquatic animals - endangered species listing and recovery
In The News
Staff from the US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service are working together to find and recover the Alabama Lampmussel.
![Person kneeling over a shallow pool, their hands in the water](/sites/default/files/styles/story_slider/public/2023-09/20230921-Toes-in-the-Toe-Peeples-Yancey-Co-student.jpg?h=790be497&itok=WIeF2nqh)
Yancey and Mitchell county, N.C. student explore streams in their community as part of the 2023 Toes in the Toe educational event.
![Several adults in a semi-circle, listening to one person sitting on a truck tailgate](/sites/default/files/styles/story_slider/public/2022-04/2022-03-Jay-Mays-gives-program-at-Stevens-Creek-Credit-Gary-Peeples.jpg?h=4362216e&itok=3EMIiQr3)
Water, Mussels, and You Workshop at Stevens Creek Nature Center Provides Insight into the World of Freshwater Mussels
![Two snorkelers in a river, heads above water, conversing](/sites/default/files/styles/story_slider/public/2022-02/2019%2008-French%20Brod%20stocking-Peeples-Jay%20Brittany%20talking.jpg?h=2f736eda&itok=2dRjt91O)
As a trio of kids on inner tubes quietly floated down the French Broad River outside Rosman, North Carolina, a nearby snorkeler broke the river’s surface, disturbing the quiet with a quick clearing of water from his snorkel. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Jason Mays was searching the...
![Underwater view of a snorkeler's face](/sites/default/files/styles/story_slider/public/2022-02/2011%2006-Little%20River-Peeples-Jay%20Mays%20underwater.jpg?h=9ba8ce75&itok=UUjJXbGi)
In 1834, a freshwater mussel collected near the convergence of the Swannanoa and French Broad Rivers was recognized as a new species – the Appalachian elktoe. Eighty years later, Carnegie Museum curator and University of Pittsburg professor Arnold Ortman couldn’t find any elktoes in the French...