Doing The ‘Darter Shuffle,’ Researchers Keep Tabs On Rare Georgia Fish

Biologists with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the Tennessee Aquarium use a seine to capture, count, document and release the goldline darters they are able to find in the Ellijay River.

Bita Honarvar / For WABE

As the summer temperatures drag on, let’s take a break to visit a nice, cold North Georgia river.

The Ellijay River flows from the Blue Ridge Mountains into Ellijay. One day last week, Bernie Kuhajda from the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute was in the river, just down the street from the elementary school and city hall.

“I play with fish,” Kuhajda, who’s an aquatic conservation biologist, said. “That’s my title. I’m the fish-playing-with-guy.”