BLACKSBURG, Va. – It’s undisputedly the oldest river on the continent, according to the NPCA, and arguably one of the oldest globally. There are eight endemic species of fish in the New River, which means they cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
Dr. Emmanuel Frimpong of the Virginia Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation said the New River is not very specious in terms of species richness, so the ratio of the total number of native species to endemic species is very high.
The eight species are the Kanawha sculpin, Bluestone sculpin, Appalachia darter, Kanawha darter, candy darter, New River shiner, Kanawha minnow and the bigmouth chub, which is a double rare species…