Conservationists Celebrate as East Tennessee Fish Snail Darter is Delisted After 47 Years of Being Endangered

To the joy of environmentalists, the Snail Darter, an endangered fish species native to East Tennessee, was delisted 47 years after being added to the list.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared Tuesday that the fish found in East Tennessee is the first fish species in the eastern United States to be removed from the Federal List of Threatened and Endangered Wildlife as a result of recovery efforts.

Snail Darter

The three-inch fish known as the "snail darter," which feeds primarily on tiny river snails, has been protected since 1975. At a celebration held on Tuesday at Kodak's Seven Islands Birding State Park, dozens of environmental organizations celebrated the bird's removal from the list of threatened and endangered species.

Darter populations are now present in several Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi waterways. After effective recovery efforts, it is the first fish species in the eastern United States and the fifth overall to be removed from the federal list.

Close to Extinction

In the Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill case before the US Supreme Court in 1978, the fish rose to fame. Because the Tellico Dam located near Lenoir City would probably cause the snail darter to go extinct, environmentalists filed a lawsuit to prevent its construction. The Little Tennessee River, where the dam was to be built, was the only known location of the fish at the time. The recently passed Endangered Species Act was upheld by the court.

The dam's construction was then put on hold for two years until Congress attached a rider to an appropriations bill to exempt it from the conservation law. It became law in 1979 after being signed by President Jimmy Carter.

Read also: Federal Court Restores Protection to Gray Wolves as Threatened Species Across US 

Conservation Milestone

Secretary Deb Haaland said that A significant step forward for conservation, the recovery of the snail darter illustrates how conflict and division can give way to cooperation and significant conservation achievement.

Then, biologists created a transplant program to create a new population of the darter. The Little Tennessee River was harvested for its snail darters, which were then transferred to the Holston and Hiwassee rivers as well as other rivers in the southeast. The fish were found in several additional streams thanks to surveying efforts by the state partners and TVA. The fish's status was changed on July 5, 1984, from endangered to threatened as a result of the transplants' success.

Rebecca Tolene, the vice president of the environment department at TVA, said that among the most biodiverse regions in the entire world is the Tennessee Valley. To protect these species, they need to work very hard as a team. She claimed that they were thrilled about the struggling species' ability to pull itself back from extinction.

The significant decreases in pollution brought about by the Clean Water Act can also be credited to the fish's recovery.

Jim Williams, a former biologist for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said that the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act have been successful, as evidenced by the snail darter's recovery. Williams was the author of the first law defending the snail darter.

Successful Recoveries

More than 50 plant and animal species, such as bald eagles, Tennessee purple coneflowers, peregrine falcons, American alligators, and humpback whales, have recovered thanks to federal protection. Snail darters are one of these species.

Percina tanasi is the scientific name for the snail darter. The word Tennessee is derived from its species name, tanasi, which also alludes to a former Cherokee Nation village not far from where the darter was found.

Due to the depletion and degradation of freshwater rivers and streams across the United States, over 260 species of freshwater fish as well as mussels are in danger of going extinct. ABC6 WATE reports.

Related article: 5 Endangered Animals that Won the Battle Against Extinction