Anna George, director of the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute, and Patrick Rakes, co-director of Conservation Fisheries Inc., and Rebecca Xiques, fisheries technician with CFI, left to right, release Conasauga Logperch into the Conasauga River on Friday. Almost two years ago, researchers from the Tennessee Aquarium and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife captured several specimen of the Conasauga Logperch, one of the rarest darters in North America. On Friday, after a long process of breeding and building a small population of the endangered fish, the researchers released a group of young logperch back into the river. Middle school students from Valley Point Middle School in Whitfield County were on hand for the release.
CONASAUGA LOGPERCH• The Conasauga logperch is one of the rarest darters in North America. The 6-inch logperch lives where the pristine Conasauga water flows out of the Cherokee National Forest into Polk County, Tenn., then ripples southward into North Georgia.• It is a brownish fish with tiger stripes, and it uses its piglike flattish, pointy snout to flip pebbles on the crystal clear river bottom, then eats the insects it finds beneath.• In the wild, it lays its eggs in the sand, so it needs a really clean, clear river.• It is listed on the federal Endangered Species List.• The Conasauga River, 40 miles east of Chattanooga, ranks fourth among U.S. rivers for harboring the highest number of imperiled aquatic species, including snails, mussels and fishes.Source: Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute, U.S. Fish & Wildlife ServiceENDANGERED SPECIES• 597 animals listed as threatened or endangered in the U.S.• 92 in Alabama• 38 in Georgia• 66 in TennesseeSource: U.S. Fish & Wildlife
TENNGA, Tenn. — Nearly two years ago, Tennessee Aquarium researchers and other conservationists snorkeled the upper reaches of the Conasauga River looking for one of the rarest darters in North America — the 6-inch Conasauga logperch.
At the time, the researchers estimated there were fewer than 300 of the small tiger-striped fish anywhere on Earth. And they all lived in this pristine 30-mile stretch of the Conasauga where it flows through the Cherokee National Forest.
On Friday, Endangered Species Day, there was better news: The count is going up.
Today there are about 1,000 Conasauga logperch on the planet.