Kip Hansen’s take – January 7, 2025 – 750 words/3 minutes
“You, you, you, you. Boo boo boo boo.”. Small fish swim along the river. He is a happy little fish.
And this little fish is very proud. This happy little fish swam alone in the Little Tennessee River, preventing Tellico Reservoir from forming—for six years.
This is one of the seminal stories of the great environmental movement of the 1970s. It’s also one of many stories of damaging excesses by the EPA.
So, snail darter Thanasi Listed as an endangered species by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It was listed on 9 October 1975 with the specific purpose of preventing the completion of Tellico Dam, which was said to pose a threat to the continued existence of the snail darter – if the dam was built, the snail darter will become extinct.
Years of legal challenges, all the way to the Supreme Court, delayed the dam's completion. Finally, through legislative efforts, President Jimmy Carter signed a bill on September 25, 1979, exempting Tellico Dam from the Endangered Species Act. Darters are exempt from provisions of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
This incident is discussed in a Wikipedia article “The Snail Dart Controversy” – I have no idea how accurate this article is or whether it is biased in any particular direction. The real facts are not known until today, fifty years later.
There were suspicions at the time that placing the snail on the ESA list was a political move aimed at appeasing the growing environmental movement in the United States. In the years following Earth Day 1970, many of the activists who had left without justification as the United States' involvement in Vietnam ended, quickly realigned with environmentalism. .
Fast forward to earlier this week, January 3, 2025, Comparative species definition for biological conservation illustrations; Otto et al. 2025.
As the New York Times explained:
“On Friday, a team of researchers concluded the fish was a phantom all along.”
“Technically, there are no snail snakes,” said Thomas Neal, curator of ichthyology at the Peabody Museum at Yale University.
“Dr. Neal, also a professor who leads the Yale Fish Biology Laboratory, and his colleagues reported in the journal Current Biology that the snail bass, Thanasineither a distinct species nor a subspecies. Instead, it is the eastern population sea bassalso known as the stargazing bass, is not considered endangered.
Dr. Neil, bless his heart, when he said:
“Dr. Neal believes that early researchers “squinted their eyes” when describing the fish because it represented a challenge to the Tennessee Valley Authority's construction of a trey on the Little Tennessee River about 20 miles southwest of Knoxville. A way to plan the dam.“I think this is the first and probably the best-known example of what I call the 'conservation species concept,' where people will decide that a species should be unique because of the downstream conservation implications it will have,” Dr. Neal explain.
The environmental movement refers to the book Snail Darters and Dams by Zygmunt JB Plater:
“The untold story of a notorious environmental case and citizen crusade that sent a minnow through Washington politics and the Supreme Court
Even today, thirty years after the legal battle to save the endangered snail fish, the minnow that blocked the completion of the TVA dam is still seen as a symbol of left-wing extremism and government stupidity. In this eye-opening book, the lawyer works with his students to win a Supreme Court case—officially known as Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill— tells the hidden story behind one of America's most significant environmental law battles.
It tells the story of the brave “little fish with power”.
But you see, it's like OK little train“Little Fish” has always been fictional.
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Author comments:
A cautionary tale – whenever you hear some species or other being declared a new species or subspecies, perk up your ears and turn your critical thinking knobs to the max – as in Just like you do with giraffes. Some of these decisions may have been made to support conservation claims, leading to declarations of endangered species status.
There are far more species unknown to humans than have been “discovered,” described, and named. How many are likely to disappear each year and how many emerge as new species is unknown.
I'm skeptical of the entire species. thing.
Thank you for reading.
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