Success! Snail darter removed from endangered species list

A success story for an early emblem of the Endangered Species Act

Last week I wrote about the saga of the northern spotted owl, a story that has had little progress or victory. Now I’m happy to offer a success story. This past week, the snail darter was removed from the list of Endangered Species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service!

This is more than just another successful recovery story. In the late seventies, the snail darter became an emblem of the new environmental movement and the recently passed Endangered Species Act. The fish helped define the ESA and how we think of wildlife.

There had been broad support for the Endangered Species Act when it was passed by Congress and signed into law by president Nixon in 1973. Beloved animals that help us define our America had almost been lost. The numbers of bison had dwindled from millions to a few thousand. DDT threatened the bald eagle with extinction.

Then, David Either, a University of Tennessee zoologist, discovered a three-inch fish, the snail darter.¹ One of 77 species of darter fish found in Tennessee rivers, this new species that dined on snails (hence its name) was only to be found in the Little Tennessee River. The trouble was that Either had found the snail darter in 1973, just when the Little Tennessee was about to be impounded by the Tellico Dam, a project of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The snail darter was declared Endangered in 1975.