New species found in Chattahoochee, Flint river systems

There’s something fishy in Georgia —- a new species, to be exact.

While surveying life in the Flint River, University of Georgia researchers identified Percina crypta, aka the Halloween darter. It can be distinguished from other darters by its orange fins.

The newly named fish, less than 5 inches long, is believed to be common to only a few parts of the Chattahoochee and Flint River systems, where swift water runs over rocky shoals.

Such shoals are less common today than in the past because of an increase in the numbers of dams and the removal of shoals to improve navigation, said ecologist Mary Freeman of UGA’s Odum School of Ecology and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Besides Freeman, the research team included her husband, Byron, of UGA’s Odum School of Ecology, Noel Burkhead of the U.S. Geological Survey and Carrie Straight, a Ph.D. student at UGA.