CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WSMV) – Conservationists successfully rescued an endangered fish from Tennessee streams where water levels were dangerously low last month.

The Tennessee Aquarium said the emergency rescue operation was initiated after reports of drying up streams along Walden Ridge, where Laurel Dace is known to live.

The rescue operation was conducted by members of the Tennessee Aquarium, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the University of Georgia River Basin Center in coordination with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

The aquarium announced that 105 adult Laurel Dace were removed and relocated to the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute (TNACI) near downtown Chattanooga. Only one fish died during the relocation, according to the press release. The surviving fish will remain in human care until conditions in their native waters improve, the aquarium said.

Laurel Dace has been monitored since the early 2000s after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identified it as a species in need of protection.

The decision to remove them was made after the aquarium’s wildlife experts concluded that the fish would not survive the current drought.

“What really weighed heavily on our minds was the knowledge that inaction, given the high level of threat to the Laurel Dace, could have led to the permanent extinction of this species,” explained Dr. Anna George of the Tennessee Aquarium.

The aquarium reported in 2017 that the introduction of invasive predator species and sewage runoff from nearby farms have reduced the Laurel Dace population, and they are now found only in two streams along the Cumberland Plateau.

The emergency rescue mission was carried out on one of these remaining streams.

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