Tiny Tennessee fish protected, but US has yet to say where

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — It was a crisp fall day when biologist Bernie Kuhajda drove to a nondescript trickle of water running through a Middle Tennessee cow pasture to try to keep a small, brightly colored fish from becoming extinct.

The trickle — little more than a few big mud puddles — was one of the last bodies of water left with a population of Barrens topminnows, and it was drying up.

So Kuhajda and his team donned waders and dragged a large sieve through the muddy pools, collecting 64 of the small, iridescent killifish to take back to the Tennessee Aquarium, where they maintain an “ark population” as a hedge against their possible disappearance in the wild.

“If we hadn't rescued these 64, this entire genetic population of Barrens topminnows would have disappeared,” Kuhajda said. “This species would have been one step closer to extinction, and it's not many steps away now."

That was in 2016, and though those fish were saved, the fate of the species is far from certain.

The Barrens topminnow spent more than 40 years in endangered species limbo — under an on-and-off review in which the fish’s chances of being saved suffered from the acrimony created during a highly-publicized fight to save another tiny Southeastern fish, the snail darter. The topminnow was finally given federal protection in 2019, but its future is still in doubt partially because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not defined its critical habitat — the areas that must be protected in order for it to recover.

Over the decades, its distribution has diminished to a handful of springs and streams around Manchester, where the annual Bonnaroo music festival is held. In that time it has been both the victim of political backlash against the Endangered Species Act as well as the beneficiary of...