Nature

US Fish And Wildlife Service Celebrates As Endangered Colorado River Fish Numbers Pick up

The US Fish and Wildlife Service is celebrating increasing numbers for this previously endangered Colorado River fish and they shared this footage to mark the occasion.

In a statement shared on their website, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said that humpback chub (Gila cypha), which could originally be found in the Colorado River system in the USA, have now been reclassified from “endangered” to “threatened”.

The FWS said that this was thanks to collaboration between partners that has led to its conservation status being improved.

Humpback chub (Gila cypha) as seen in the Little Colorado River, Summer 2021. (USFWS/Freshwaters Illustrated/Clipzilla)

The FWS shared this footage showing humpback chub swimming in the wild on social media and said: “Humpback chub is swimming closer to recovery!

“Thanks to our partners and based upon the best available science, we’re reclassifying humpback chub from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

“We and our partners continue working to fully recover this unique freshwater fish in the Colorado River.”

Typical swiftwater habitat of the humpback chub in Westwater Canyon in Utah in the United States. (Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Brian Hines/Clipzilla)

The FWS in Denver, Colorado, said in its statement: “Thanks to the hard work of state, regional, Tribal and federal agencies, as well as private partners, significant progress has been made conserving and recovering the humpback chub.

“Following a review of the best available science, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is announcing that it has reclassified the humpback chub from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Today’s announcement follows the publication of the proposed rule in January 2020 and subsequent public comment period.”

Matt Hogan, Acting Regional Director for the Service, said: “Today’s action is the result of the collaborative conservation that is needed to ensure the recovery of listed species.”

Humpback chub occupied range and critical habitat. (USFWS, Julie Stahli/Clipzilla)

He added: “Reclassifying this distinctive fish from endangered to threatened is the result of many years of cooperative work by conservation partners in the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program and the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program.

“We thank everyone involved for their efforts as we look toward addressing the remaining challenges in the Colorado River Basin.”

The statement also said: “The humpback chub was first documented in the Lower Colorado River Basin in the Grand Canyon in the 1940s and the upper Colorado River Basin in the 1970s. It was placed on the list of endangered species in 1967 due to impacts from the alteration of river habitats by large mainstem dams. This fish is uniquely adapted to live in the swift and turbulent whitewater found in the river’s canyon-bound areas.

Humpback chubs swimming underwater in the Colorado River in Grand Canyon in Arizona in the United States. (USFWS/Freshwaters Illustrated/Clipzilla)

“The fleshy hump behind its head, which gives the fish its name, evolved to make it harder to be eaten by predators, and its large, curved fins allow the humpback chub to maintain its position in the swiftly moving current.”

They also said that the final rule to reclassify the humpback chub from endangered to threatened would be officially published in the Federal Register today (18th October).

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