Agency seeks U.S. protection for aquatic life

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday proposed adding three aquatic animals from the tri-state region to the list of federally endangered species.

At the same time, the agency proposed designating 160 miles of rivers and streams in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee as critical habitat for the Georgia pigtoe mussel, interrupted rocksnail and rough hornsnail. For Georgia, Gordon, Floyd, Murray and Whitfield counties would fall within those boundaries.

The three creatures once numbered in the hundreds of thousands or millions. Now, more than 90 percent have been wiped out because of confinement and degrading water quality, biologists said.

“Like most species in the Southeast, these reflect modern human activities,” said Paul Hartfield, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “When you’re losing components of a healthy ecosystem, you’re losing quality of life.”

The Georgia pigtoe mussel once inhabited the Coosa River, which starts in Rome, and several tributaries in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. The oblong-shaped mussel now is known to survive on shoals in a 27-mile reach of the Conasauga River in Georgia and Tennessee. Once numbering in the hundreds of thousands, fewer than a dozen have been found in a 30-year collection period, Hartfield said.

The interrupted rocksnail —which once inhabited the Coosa, Conasauga and Oostanaula rivers — now is known to survive in a 7.5-mile reach of the Oostanaula River. At one time, more than 1 million rocksnails could be found on a single shoal. “Now we’re down to a handful,” Hartfield said of the pebblelike creatures often stuck to rocks.

The rough hornsnail was found in the Coosa River and in several Alabama tributaries. Now, two small populations can be found in Alabama.

A federal endangered listing would protect all three from killing, harming, harassing or removing them from the wild.