Imperiled fish listed as endangered species

Federal regulators are giving new protections to a rare fish species found in West Virginia and Virginia.

In a Federal Register notice published Wednesday, the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said that the candy darter, which has lost about half of its range, warrants protection as an endangered species.

The fish is native to hundreds of miles of streams in the Kanawha River basin in West Virginia and Virginia. But it’s no longer present in about half of its historic range, due mainly to hybridization, or breeding, with another species that was introduced due to fish stocking.

The candy darter is only the eighth species to get Endangered Species Act protection under the Trump administration.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/417812-imperiled-fish-listed-as-endangered-species