Re: NANFA-- Calif. Fish May Get Endangered Tag

Wally Billingham (wally_at_wallybillingham.com)
Sat, 21 Sep 2002 19:55:23 -0400

This is interesting, why do they want to list them as being endangered?
According to the book "Pennsylvania Fishes" published by the PA Fish and
Boat Commission all of them came from a "single female trout with a genetic
mutation that gave her a mixed golden and normal rainbow trout coloration.
She was found in the West Virginia hatchery system in 1954."

PA grows them by the thousands and then stocks them along with regular
rainbows as a novelty. I guess they are the ultimate exotic fish dumped in
our states waterways. Which is why I find the following quote quite amusing

"The finding comes almost a year after the
conservation group Trout Unlimited sued the agency to force it to consider
such a move. The fish's population has declined because of habitat loss,
hybridization,
competition with non-native trout"

Its funny thats EXACTLY where these trout came from. The are hybrid
non-native trout produced in a hatchery. If they want them in California why
not just farm them like PA does?

Wally
----- Original Message -----
From: <Roghfish_at_aol.com>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2002 8:36 AM
Subject: NANFA-- Calif. Fish May Get Endangered Tag

> SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The federal government has determined California's
state
> fish, the golden trout, may need to be listed as an endangered species.
>
> The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Friday there's substantial
evidence
> to support listing the trout. The finding comes almost a year after the
> conservation group Trout Unlimited sued the agency to force it to consider
> such a move.
>
> The fish's population has declined because of habitat loss, hybridization,
> competition with non-native trout, and even overgrazing by livestock. At
one
> time, the fish were found in 450 miles of streams in the Southern Sierra
> Nevada, but over the past 100 years that has dwindled to just over 80
miles.
>
> The service now will begin a 12-month review to determine if a listing is
> warranted and, if it is, whether that listing will be as a threatened
species
> or as an endangered one. A threatened species is likely to become
endangered
> in the foreseeable future, and an endangered one faces the threat of
> extinction throughout part or all of the range where it lives.
>
> Native populations of the fish now are found only in the Golden Trout
Creek
> and South Fork of the Kern River. The rivers are both in the Golden Trout
> Wilderness in Inyo National Forest.
>
> ``It's great news,'' said Scott Yates of Trout Unlimited. ``What's
> interesting is the habitat for these fish is on federal land. The
Endangered
> Species Act could really be productive in terms of focusing conservation
> efforts and trying to get the state to conserve native fish.''
>
> Trout Unlimited sued the Fish and Wildlife Service in November 2001, and
this
> June a federal judge gave the service three months to start the process of
> listing the fish.
>
> The Fish and Wildlife Service faces a backlog of other endangered species
> requests and lawsuits.
>
> ``We've gotten so many petitions; we're responding to many, many
lawsuits,''
> said Jim Nickles of the service. ``We'd like to be able to act on them as
> quickly as possible, we just have a real crunch in the resources we
have.''
>
> So far, fishing of the colorful trout, a subspecies of rainbow trout, is
not
> affected. If the fish is listed as endangered, state fish and game
regulators
> would need to come up with guidelines for taking the fish.

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/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
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/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
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/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org