Rare Pearl Darter Receives Key Endangered Species Act Protections

Long awaited legal safeguards will help imperiled Southeastern fish escape extinction

Washington, DC—After an over 25-year delay, today the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is protecting the pearl darter (Percina aurora) as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). 

“After nearly three decades of languishing without safeguards, the Pearl darter finally has the legal protections it needs to put it on the road to recovery” said Taylor Jones, endangered species advocate for WildEarth Guardians. “Long delays in providing protections make it harder for species to recover: we call on the Fish and Wildlife Service to make timely decisions on safeguarding our most vulnerable species and prevent extinction.” 

The last known populations of pearl darters, small fish less than three inches in length, live in Mississippi’s Pascagoula River drainage. The species used to be found in the Pearl River drainage of Louisiana, but was extirpated from the river for which it is named. Threats to the darter include pollution, urbanization, sand and gravel mining, and proposed dams. The pearl darter is found in less than half of its historic range. 

The Pearl darter was first found warranted for ESA protections in 1991, but the Service declined to actually list it, instead placing it on the “candidate” list. The imperiled fish, which the Southeastern Fishes Council considers one of the most imperiled fish species within the southeastern U.S., has waited for legal protections ever since. The pearl darter was petitioned for listing in 2004 by a star-studded list of conservationists, including Dr. E. O. Wilson, Dr. Jane Goodall, Dr. Paul Erlich, Barbara Kingsolver, Martin Sheen, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Xerces Society, and the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, among others. It was found “warranted but precluded” by other priorities once again and placed back on the candidate list in 2005. 

As part of two landmark settlements entered into with WildEarth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity in 2011, the Service made “yes” or “no” decisions on all 252 species on the candidate list by Sept. 2016, including the pearl darter. This final rule finalizes the Sept. 2016 proposal to list the pearl darter as “threatened.” 

Protection under the ESA is an effective safety net for imperiled species: more than 99 percent of plants and animals protected by the law exist today. The law is especially important as a defense against the current extinction crisis; species are disappearing at a rate much higher than the natural rate of extinction due to human activities. Scientists estimate that 227 species would have gone extinct by 2006 if not for ESA protections.   


 

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