Researchers discover fish never seen in Pa.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Small fish called river darters that have never before been found in Pennsylvania were caught in the state by researchers trawling the bottom of the Ohio River.

The Penn State University researchers were working on a state-funded survey of fish species in the upper 40 miles of the river between Pittsburgh and the Ohio border when they made the discovery a month ago.

“I didn’t know immediately what we had, but I know and have collected every species of fish in Pennsylvania and knew it was something new,” said Tim Stecko, a researcher who hopes to publish information about the finding later this year.

“There are a lot of different darters, but no one has ever collected this one before in the state,” he said.

The river darter is a bug-eyed fish with an olive-colored back, two dorsal fins and fanlike pectoral fins. It measures about 3 inches long and is not brightly colored like many other darter species.

Stecko said his survey team netted four river darters in 15 to 20 feet of water near the middle of the river using an 8-foot-wide net pulled along the bottom.