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Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Two Imperiled Missouri River Fish Need Legal Protections
Endangered Species Act Protections Sought for Sturgeon Chub and Sicklefin Chub
Contact: Taylor Jones, (720) 443-2615, tjones@wildearthguardians.org
Alternate contact: Jen Pelz, (303) 884-2702, jpelz@wildearthguardians.org
Washington, DC—WildEarth Guardians asked the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) to protect two species of imperiled freshwater fish under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The sturgeon chub and sicklefin chub are found in the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and their declining populations are threatened by habitat fragmentation.
“These rare fish are struggling in the fragmented Missouri River and need the protections of the Endangered Species Act to survive,” said Taylor Jones, endangered species advocate for WildEarth Guardians. “The continued decline of these imperiled fish should be a call to action for the Service.”
These rare fish were denied Endangered Species Act protections in 2000, despite a nearly 50 percent decline in the species’ occupied range. Since then, their populations have continued to shrink. These small fish are important prey species for another imperiled animal, the pallid sturgeon. Pallid sturgeon are listed as “endangered” under the ESA.
Dams, which fragment riverine habitat, are the biggest threat to both chub species, which need long, unbroken stretches of unaltered river to complete their lifecycles. Both species are pelagic-spawning fish, meaning they release their eggs to float downstream while they mature. If the eggs are washed into a reservoir, they may sink to the bottom and suffocate in silt, and are also more vulnerable to predation.
“Rivers across the West are losing native species at an alarming rate,” said Jones. “We must rethink the way we manage our rivers and create a sustainable system for both wildlife and people.”
Protection under the ESA is an effective safety net for imperiled species: more than 99 percent of plants and animals protected by the law exist today. The law is especially important as a defense against the current extinction crisis; species are disappearing at a rate much higher than the natural rate of extinction due to human activities. Scientists estimate that 227 species would have gone extinct by 2006 if not for ESA protections.
Read the petition here.
Top: Sturgeon Chub (Macrhybopsis gelida). Bottom: Sicklefin Chub (Macrhybopsis meeki). Photos © David Ostendorf, used with permission.
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