Stan,

The old "snail darter" case! I was in school at UT when Dave Etnier discovered the snail darter in the "Little T". Dave and Larry Wilson were two of my profs at UT from 1973-1977. Dave Etnier was one of the best professors at UT in my opinion, and Larry is outstanding as well. Really brilliant men.

I'm sure you have read all the gory details of the case. It was a quite controversial subject, with lots of blame to go around to a number of individuals and agencies, including agencies charged with "protection". The upshot of all this is that snail darters were eventuially found in several other locations and have done relatively well in those locations where TVA relocated them. They were delisted several years ago.

In the past, I was involved in some of the efforts to monitor the progress of the stocked populations. Man, talk about a difficult fish to sample! The habitat they live in makes for very difficult sampling. One of the best ways is to merely observe them while snorkeling. Trying to seine them in the deeper, boulder strewn, more current laden waters they inhabit is TOUGH!