A species of tiny fish that once flourished in the U.S. South's Pearl River is being reintroduced there after disappearing 50 years ago.
Matthew Wagner, a biologist from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, holds a threatened pearl darter fish, which haven't lived in the Pearl River system for 50 years, as they are released in the Strong River, a tributary of the Pearl River, in Pinola, Miss., Monday, July 31, 2023. Wildlife experts say a number of pollution and habitat problems likely contributed to the disappearance of pearl darter from the Pearl River system.
And even though pollution and other threats to habitat remain today within the Pearl River, more than 400 miles long, officials say the 1972 federal Clean Water Act has helped make it cleaner. Clean enough, in fact, that Mississippi and the federal government wildlife experts say there are signs that the pearl darter may be able to thrive there again.
“There’s more species here than most other places, and a lot of the species that we find here are what we call sensitive species. They are species that are not very tolerant of things like pollution, high disturbance and things of that nature.” The pearl darter is a bottom-dwelling fish that measures about 2.5 inches long. It is named for the iridescent coloring around its gills, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which listed it as a threatened species in 2017.
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