Flash! Fish & Wildlife Might List The Spring Pygmy Sunfish!

Check out the link below:
http://www.fws.gov/southeast/news/2011/11-031.html
It looks like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is changing its mind about listing the Spring Pygmy Sunfish under the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological Diversity and Mike Sandel, petitioners for the listing, are rewarded for pursuing the FWS in a fairly aggressive fashion (like filing a Notice of Intent to file a lawsuit). I'm congratulating myself for writing a letter in support of an emergency listing of the species, and I'm glad that NANFA, North American Native Fishes Association, also wrote a letter in support of the petition. I also heard today from a Huntsville Times reporter that one or more of the local landowners around the Pygmy's spring system are negotiating with FWS to protect the species in a meaningful fashion.

A summary of all of this appeared as the lead front page story in today's Huntsville Times, at http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/04/feds_may_protect_rare_sunfish.html.