An 'Endangered' Fish That Delayed a Dam's Construction for 6 Years Was Never Actually in Danger, Find Scientists

The river fish, Snail Darter's pivotal story has now gotten a new chapter with a study claiming that it was never in danger of becoming extinct. Conservationists are usually very happy when a species is detected to be non-extinct. In the case of Snail Darter, the community was taken aback because of the long history associated with these creatures, stated Smithsonian Magazine. In the 1970s conservationists from all over the country participated in a massive effort to save this 'endangered' species when a dam was being built in their habitat. The new information paints one of the most captivating conservation efforts in American history, in a different color than desired. The new insight has been provided in a study published in Current Biology. 

Researchers claim that the previous assertions regarding the species being genetically distinct and therefore being vulnerable to extinction are wrong. "There is, technically, no snail darter," Thomas Near, an ichthyologist at Yale University, and a senior author of the study said. Experts conducted an anatomical and genetic analysis of the species and concluded that it was an eastern population of the stargazing darter. This implied that the creature had close relatives and its genetic makeup was found in present-day organisms.

Jeffrey Simmons, a co-author of the study and former biologist, saw a marine animal that he likened to a Snail Darter in appearance, at an area much farther than the creature's known habitat. This kickstarted this pursuit of identifying any known living relative of the famous creatures. Researchers do not think that experts in the past gave the wrong assertions regarding Snail Darter due to a lack of examinations. "Our approach combines analyses of the physical characteristics and the genetics, which scientists weren’t doing in the 1970s," Near explained.

In 1967, the Tennessee Valley Authority started work on a dam they wanted to build on the Little Tennessee River. This was a huge cause of concern for local farmers and Cherokee, whose lands and ancestral areas came under the danger of getting flooded. Environmentalists also became worried about the various beings that would lose their habitat because of the structure. All of them were looking for ways to stop the construction when a zoologist at the University of Tennessee, David Etnier, came forward with a claim regarding Snail Darter, one of the inhabitants of the Little Tennessee River. 

Etnier was the one who located this previously unknown fish and named it Snail Darter based on its feeding habits. In 1975, authorities categorized the creature as 'endangered.' "Here’s a little fish that might save your farm," Etnier reportedly said to a local civilian. Zygmunt Plater, an environmental lawyer represented Snail Darter's case in Supreme Court and was initially successful. In 1978, the Supreme Court gave the judgment that "the Endangered Species Act prohibits impoundment of the Little Tennessee River by the Tellico Dam." Later on, lawmakers overruled the decision by calling it an environmental overreach. They added a rider to exempt Tellico Dam from the 'Endangered Species Act' and went forward with construction.

Amidst all the proceedings Snail Darter's cause gained a lot of popularity, with hundreds of conservationists coming to the site and rehoming the small fish in other waterways. The massive effort caused a resurgence in the creature's population and it was removed from the endangered species list in 2022. Despite the new information Simmons still calls the massive effort a success story. "Its listing under the Endangered Species Act worked, regardless of what you call this fish," he said.