Nobody had seen these fish in decades — then a broken dam let them swim home

Conservation biologist Luke Etchison was walking the Swannanoa River in his Asheville neighborhood when he thought he spotted a smallmouth bass. A few days later he snorkeled the same stretch and found a bunch of them — in a section of river where the fish had not been found for decades. Hurricane Helene had battered the century-old Lake Craig Dam, opening a gap that let fish swim through for the first time in a hundred years. The city of Asheville says it does not intend to repair the dam, leaving the river open, and the fish's return is a sign the water is getting healthier — good news for every species biologists hope to bring back to the Swannanoa next.