{"id":547801,"date":"2026-01-27T22:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T22:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/547801\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T22:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T22:46:14","slug":"fish-species-found-only-in-alabama-moves-closer-to-endangered-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/547801\/","title":{"rendered":"Fish species found only in Alabama moves closer to endangered status"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">MONTGOMERY, Ala. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsfa.com\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"http:\/\/www.wsfa.com\">WSFA<\/a>) &#8211; The stippled studfish, a freshwater species found only in Alabama, is \u201cswimming closer to Endangered Species Act protection\u201d according to a release from the <a href=\"https:\/\/biologicaldiversity.org\/w\/news\/press-releases\/stippled-studfish-swims-closer-to-endangered-species-act-protection-2026-01-23\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/biologicaldiversity.org\/w\/news\/press-releases\/stippled-studfish-swims-closer-to-endangered-species-act-protection-2026-01-23\/\"><b>Center for Biological Diversity<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Stippled studfish photo by Philip Gentry\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ZLML7QFTFREZFLPK3TM7T4POZU.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"549\" \/>Stippled studfish photo by Philip Gentry(Philip Gentry | Philip Gentry)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Center submitted a petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) asking for the protection. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A document from the FWS <a href=\"https:\/\/public-inspection.federalregister.gov\/2026-01414.pdf\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/public-inspection.federalregister.gov\/2026-01414.pdf\"><b>shows<\/b><\/a> that the fish \u201cpresents substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petitioned actions may be warranted,\u201d and the department is now \u201cinitiating status reviews of these species to determine whether the petitioned actions are warranted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Once the status review is complete, the service will \u201cissue 12-month petition findings, which will address whether or not the petitioned actions are warranted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s great news that these dazzling, freckly fish are one step closer to being protected under the Endangered Species Act,\u201d said Meg Townsend, a freshwater attorney at the Center. \u201cStippled studfish have already completely disappeared from Georgia streams and without strong safeguards the few remaining populations in Alabama could also be lost forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">According to the Center, the stippled studfish was once a common sight in the Tallapoosa River system in both Alabama and Georgia, however \u201cdecades of development, pollution and worsening drought have reduced the species to just a few isolated streams in Alabama, with no confirmed sightings in Georgia since 1990.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">If the stippled studfish is found to warrant Endangered Species Act Protection it would, among other protections, require protection for critical habitat areas and require a recovery plan to be implemented.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Not reading this story on the WSFA News App? Get news alerts FASTER and FREE in the <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/wsfa-12-news\/id449733109\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Apple App Store<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.raycom.wsfa&amp;hl=en_US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Play Store<\/a>! <\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WSFA. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) &#8211; The stippled studfish, a freshwater species found only in Alabama, is \u201cswimming closer to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":547802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[12955,35631,30341,9563,746,240785,26979,159,13310,240784,240786,103572,22913,67,132,68,53737,53736],"class_list":{"0":"post-547801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-alabama","9":"tag-center-for-biological-diversity","10":"tag-endangered","11":"tag-endangered-species-act","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-meg-townsend","14":"tag-montgomery","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-status","17":"tag-stippled-studfish","18":"tag-tallapoosa-river","19":"tag-the-center","20":"tag-u-s-fish-and-wildlife-service","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-wfsa","25":"tag-wsfa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115969496403166057","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}