Post by Karstscience on Mar 20, 2006 9:31:45 GMT -5
The world and Devils Hole Tin
By Launce Rake <lrake@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas Sun 3/18/2006
As go the Devils Hole pupfish, so goes the planet. For scientists studying the endangered pupfish, its last stand has become a metaphor for other rare and threatened species.
Devils Hole Pupfish Courtesy of National Parks Service
The Devils Hole pupfish was one of the very first species classified by the federal government as endangered. If federal protection can't help the pupfish, could other endangered species be far behind?
"When you start to see species that have been around for thousands and thousands of years disappear, it serves as a forewarning that other species may be affected, and humans may ultimately be affected," said John Wullschleger, a National Park Service biologist stationed in Fort Collins, Colo.
"This species is a canary in a coal mine."
The aptly named fish - just an inch long - lives in a deep, vertical limestone cave in the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge near Pahrump. Scientists and an assortment of federal, state and local officials are working to save the lowly pupfish as its population dwindles. They have their work cut out. Only about 80 fish remain in Devils Hole.
The threatened extinction of the species is also a bellwether for the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966 and its follow-up in 1973, the landmark federal laws that mandated protections for "listed" species that are on the brink of extinction. The listing ultimately led to a Supreme Court test in 1976, in which the country's highest court recognized the right of federal agencies to protect the cave's water supplies to support the pupfish, and by extension, water supplies needed for other endangered species.
Now, Wullschleger and his colleagues are in a race to find out what is killing the Devils Hole pupfish and reverse the slow die-off, a process that accelerated with the accidental killing of many of the fish in September 2004. In that incident, scientific equipment stored at the mouth of the cave was washed into the water during a heavy summer flood. One-third to two-thirds of the remaining wild population of the species were killed.
Those guarding the pupfish - sometimes literally, since the cave is protected by razor wire to keep out unauthorized visitors - note that even before the 2004 incident, the population was declining.
Razor wire protects Devils Hole, home of the endangered pup fish, from casual visitors. Photo courtesy of Launce Rake Las Vegas Sun.
Devils Hole pupfish
* Scientific name: Cyprinodon diabolis
* Water temperature of Devils Hole, year-round: 92 to 93 degrees
* Depth of Devils Hole: Unknown - at least 500 feet
* Highest number counted: 553 in 1978
* Average population through 1996: 324
* Population count in November 2005: 84 (Does not count two dozen at Hoover Dam refugium.)
* Pupfish life span: Eight months to a year
* President Harry Truman called the pupfish: "A peculiar race of desert fish."
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Complete article found here:
www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/news/2006/mar/18/566648486.html
By Launce Rake <lrake@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas Sun 3/18/2006
As go the Devils Hole pupfish, so goes the planet. For scientists studying the endangered pupfish, its last stand has become a metaphor for other rare and threatened species.
Devils Hole Pupfish Courtesy of National Parks Service
The Devils Hole pupfish was one of the very first species classified by the federal government as endangered. If federal protection can't help the pupfish, could other endangered species be far behind?
"When you start to see species that have been around for thousands and thousands of years disappear, it serves as a forewarning that other species may be affected, and humans may ultimately be affected," said John Wullschleger, a National Park Service biologist stationed in Fort Collins, Colo.
"This species is a canary in a coal mine."
The aptly named fish - just an inch long - lives in a deep, vertical limestone cave in the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge near Pahrump. Scientists and an assortment of federal, state and local officials are working to save the lowly pupfish as its population dwindles. They have their work cut out. Only about 80 fish remain in Devils Hole.
The threatened extinction of the species is also a bellwether for the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966 and its follow-up in 1973, the landmark federal laws that mandated protections for "listed" species that are on the brink of extinction. The listing ultimately led to a Supreme Court test in 1976, in which the country's highest court recognized the right of federal agencies to protect the cave's water supplies to support the pupfish, and by extension, water supplies needed for other endangered species.
Now, Wullschleger and his colleagues are in a race to find out what is killing the Devils Hole pupfish and reverse the slow die-off, a process that accelerated with the accidental killing of many of the fish in September 2004. In that incident, scientific equipment stored at the mouth of the cave was washed into the water during a heavy summer flood. One-third to two-thirds of the remaining wild population of the species were killed.
Those guarding the pupfish - sometimes literally, since the cave is protected by razor wire to keep out unauthorized visitors - note that even before the 2004 incident, the population was declining.
Razor wire protects Devils Hole, home of the endangered pup fish, from casual visitors. Photo courtesy of Launce Rake Las Vegas Sun.
Devils Hole pupfish
* Scientific name: Cyprinodon diabolis
* Water temperature of Devils Hole, year-round: 92 to 93 degrees
* Depth of Devils Hole: Unknown - at least 500 feet
* Highest number counted: 553 in 1978
* Average population through 1996: 324
* Population count in November 2005: 84 (Does not count two dozen at Hoover Dam refugium.)
* Pupfish life span: Eight months to a year
* President Harry Truman called the pupfish: "A peculiar race of desert fish."
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Complete article found here:
www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/news/2006/mar/18/566648486.html