Tuesday, January
8, 2002
Biologists work
to save fish species
By Ryan Alessi
Scripps Howard News Service
To many Americans,
a fish is a fish - it's tough to tell the difference between a
bull trout and a pink salmon.
To nature, it's a world of difference.
The pink salmon is one of the most abundant fishes in the Northwest.
The bull trout, which once thrived on the Blackfoot River in Montana,
is considered a threatened species - close to joining the endangered
species list. Biologists and government programs must work to
bring the bull trout back to life.
Like recovery programs of all stripes, the process begins when
people decide there is a problem.
Greg Neudecker calls it "the light bulb moment." It's
that instant of enlightenment when someone realizes the effect
humans have on the rest of the fragile ecosystems that hum all
around us - particularly rivers and streams that brim with hundreds
of species.
As a member of the Montana Partners for Fish and Wildlife program,
Neudecker's job is to spark that light bulb.
Either because of pollution, overuse or man-made obstacles that
clog the flow of rivers and streams, fish and humans can no longer
use many waterways in their natural forms.
For humans, that might mean no swimming or canoeing. For fish,
it can mean life or death.
Neudecker works with local farmers and ranchers to conserve irrigation
water and prevent fish from getting caught in irrigation canals
to die. Often all it takes is a quick trip.
"I remember this particular landowner said, 'Go ahead, take
a sample. But all you're going to find are some minnows,' "
Neudecker said.
Neudecker, the landowner and his 10-year-old son trekked to the
mouth of the irrigation ditch carved off the river. From the shallow,
trickling waters, Neudecker pulled handfuls of young trout of
five species - two of which have seen their populations dwindle
to near endangerment.
"It was some of the highest density of fish we've ever found,"
he said. "Because some of the young fish were smaller than
five inches, he assumed they were just minnows."
The stunned landowner agreed to help install screens to keep fish
from leaving the river. As for the 10-year-old, Neudecker said,
"he was really excited about seeing all the fish. You could
see the light bulb came on for him, too."
Not too late
Many in the Big Country recall the battle of the Concho water
snake as part of the development of O.H. Ivie Reservoir. The federal
government delayed the Ivie project until the Colorado River Municipal
Water District, which manages the Coleman County lake, agreed
in 1987 to build a habitat for the Concho water snake.
The Texas Department of Wildlife Commission removed the snake
from its threatened list in 2000.
Otherwise, the area does not have any endangered species trying
to eke out an existence in its creeks and waterways, according
to the Abilene office of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Service.
The United States has lost 69 species of fish to extinction. Another
136 species are endangered, most of which live in freshwater rivers,
lakes and streams. These freshwater ecosystems make up only 1
percent of the U.S. landscape, yet they support 58 percent of
the country's endangered species.
"But it's not too late," said Kieran Suckling, executive
director of the Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson, Ariz.
"We, in the past, have learned how to clean up polluted water.
We can discover which rivers are being over-pumped most rapidly,
and we can reverse those trends and restore them."
That pays dividends for people, he said.
The Arizona desert pupfish is used in kidney dialysis research.
Because the little fish live in small, salty pools in the desert,
researchers want to see how their kidneys filter out salt.
Biologists and environmentalists liken endangered fish to the
proverbial "canary in the coal mine" - species that
indicate something is going wrong in their natural neighborhood.
"Once you start losing species in an ecosystem, it shows
the potential for a major disaster," said Tom Czapala, a
fisheries biologist with the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish
Recovery Program.
The Colorado River (not the Texas system) has been altered and
diverted more than any other river in the United States by dams,
irrigation canals and city water needs. As a result, two fish
species are gone forever and a half-dozen more are fighting for
their lives.
Since 1988, biologists at the Upper Colorado recovery program
have boosted the populations of four endangered species of fish
indigenous to the Colorado River and its tributaries. By breeding
young fish in captive ponds, they've brought the numbers back
up.
The bonytail, for instance, dwindled to 11 adults in the early
1990s. By setting up spawning pools and working with nearby landowners
to screen irrigation ditches, the population is more than 150.
Just in time, Czapala said.
"If we were just doing this now, I'd say, 'Yeah, we're too
late for these species,' " he said. "But we've been
able to find out what these species needed. And now they're on
their way back."
Contact Washington
bureau writer Ryan Alessi at alessir@shns.com
On the Net: Center
for Biological Diversity: www.biologicaldiversity.org
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