Marine biologists with the Tennessee Valley Authority have begun to survey fish populations in Douglas Lake in Dandridge, Tennessee for the first time since Hurricane Helene debris covered many East Tennessee waterways seven months ago.

The data they collect could illustrate the impact that excessive debris has had on the sport fish population. The findings will be compared to similar surveys on Douglas Lake over the last 30 years. Fewer fish in the lake or fish with deformities, parasites or injuries would be red flags going into spawning season. 

Scientists shocked the water around their research boat, which tensed the muscles of all the fish within a four-foot radius of the boat. Once the fish floated to the top, they were examined for defects, measured and weighed.

All fish were released back into the water after the study.

POPULAR NORTH CAROLINA DESTINATIONS STILL WORKING TO RECOVER FROM HURRICANE HELENE

"I think here over the next few weeks, we will really be able to see what, if any, impacts there have been," Lyn Williams, TVA Fisheries and Aquatic Monitoring Manager, said. "You know, judging off yesterday, things look within normal range. We'll see if that's what the complete data says or not."

Structures in the water, like debris, give fish a place to lay eggs, hunt and feed. TVA Fisheries Biologist Kevin Parr said a disruption in shoreline habitat might force fish to find a new place to congregate. 

"It might move the fish around, but fish can move. They're not going anywhere. They might go deep or go offshore," Parr said. 

According to the Jefferson County Tourism Department, about 80% of the tourism in the area comes from sport fishing. Skylar Hamilton said it brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

"We have other events, of course. We have festivals. We have a lot of other things in Jefferson County, but the lake is our bread and butter," Hamilton said. 

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Most fishing tournaments scheduled on Douglas Lake immediately after Hurricane Helene were rescheduled until this spring, which put a dent in last year's revenue. 

Cleanup on Douglas Lake is about 90% complete. More than 112,000 cubic yards of debris across 351 miles of shoreline have been removed.

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The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency estimates that 3.7 million cubic yards of debris have been removed from all Tennessee waterways in the last seven months.   

President Donald Trump stirred the hearts of the University of Alabama graduates when he re-affirmed his promise to "keep men out of women's sports."

During a commencement speech at the university's graduation ceremony on Thursday night, Trump gave a shutout to the school's SEC champion women's track and field team, before igniting a raucous applause by "vowing to defend women's sports."

"As long as I'm president, we will always protect women's sports, men will not play in women's sports!" Trump said, before the crowd erupted in cheers, for its loudest and longest applause of the night. 

"No way! They say its an 80-20 issue, no, it's a 97-3 issue, I think," Trump said. "No, men will not be playing in women's sports. I said that and I classified it with a very powerful executive order as you know, it's done." 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

Later in the speech Trump circled back to the subject later in the speech, mocking the Democrats for allowing trans athletes in women's sports and the trans athletes themselves in a lengthy rant. 

During this section of the speech, Trump also discussed the Paris Olympics women's boxing competitions, which included two gold medalists who were previously disqualified from international competitions for failing gender eligibility tests. However, neither boxer, Algeria's Imane Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, identifies as transgender. 

"They had a great champion a female boxer, and after one punch she walked back to the corner and said ‘I can’t get hit like that, I've never been hit like that before," Trump said. 

At one point, Trump did a physical impersonation of a female weight lifter and a trans weight lifter, and reenacted a scenario where the female loses a competition to a trans opponent. 

Then Trump took aim at transgender swimmers, telling a story of a swimmer who he joked was "windburned" by a trans opponent. 

"One young lady, she was going to set the record, she fought all her life to set the record," Trump said. "Then she looks to the right and she sees the same thing but there's a person next to her who's a giant… that was a person that transitioned and he had the wingspan of Wilt ‘the stilt’ Chamberlain." 

Trump made similar references to the weightlifting and swimmer scenarios in June 2023 while speaking at the North Carolina Republican Party's convention in Greensboro. 

On Thursday, Trump also referenced female volleyball players who have been impacted by trans inclusion. 

"You look at all the volleyball players who have been hurt so badly that are hit at levels that they've never seen before," Trump said. 

One former University of Alabama women's volleyball player, Brooke Slusser, was thrust into a situation where she had to share a locker room and bedroom with a trans athlete when she transferred from the university to San Jose State University in 2023. 

There, after leaving Alabama for California, Slusser was thrust into a situation where she was made to share those spaces with trans teammate Blaire Fleming without even being told Fleming is a biological male, Slusser alleges in a lawsuit.

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Slusser has since fled San Jose State University and returned home to Texas after facing alleged backlash and harassment in the aftermath of filing her lawsuit. 

Trump signed the "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order on Feb. 5. One day later, the NCAA revised its gender eligibility police to restrict participation in the women's category to only biological females. However, the new policy has also come under criticism by some women's sports activists for not going far enough. 

Alabama as a state has had a law in place to prevent trans athletes in girls' sports in effect since 2021, and in 2023 it extended to include college students. Unlike other laws addressing the issue, Alabama's law also bars athletes assigned female at birth from participating in the boys' category unless there is no comparable girls' opportunity (such as football).

Trans inclusion in women and girls' sports emerged as a hot-button issue in Trump's 2024 election victory, as most Americans came to take the Republican's side on the topic. 

A national exit poll conducted by the Concerned Women for America (CWA) legislative action committee found that 70% of moderate voters saw the issue of "Donald Trump’s opposition to transgender boys and men playing girls and women’s sports and of transgender boys and men using girls and women’s bathrooms," as important to them. 

And 6% said it was the most important issue of all, while 44% said it was "very important."

The issue inspired a national counter-culture movement against Demorat policies that keep trans athletes in women's sports, heavily influenced by young college-educated women. And Biden’s 35-point lead among young women over Trump in 2020 shrunk to a 24-point lead for Harris this year, per an NBC News exit poll. 

A New York Times/Ipsos survey found the vast majority of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, don't think transgender athletes should be permitted to compete in women's sports. 

Of the 2,128 people who participated, 79% said biological males who identify as women should not be allowed to participate in women's sports. Of the 1,025 people who identified as Democrats or leaning Democrat, 67% said transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete with women. 

Nearly 70% of Americans say biological men should not be permitted to compete in women's sports, according to a Gallup poll last year.

In June 2024, a survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago asked respondents whether transgender athletes of both sexes should be permitted to participate in sports leagues that correspond to their preferred gender identity instead of their biological sex. In that survey, 65% answered that it should never or rarely be allowed. When those polled were asked specifically about adult transgender female athletes competing in women’s sports, 69% opposed it.

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