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SCIENCE Friday 24 July 2020
U.S. wildlife agency rejects protections for rare fish species

By MATTHEW BROWN tion of warmer water tem-
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — peratures that can hurt the
U.S. wildlife officials on fish. Those measures also
Wednesday rejected spe- will help protect them go-
cial protections for a rare, ing forward, they said.
freshwater fish related to "We can decrease water
salmon that's been at the temperatures despite the
center of a long-running fact that air temperature is
legal dispute, citing conser- increasing," Boyd said.
vation efforts that officials Arctic grayling are native
say have increased Arctic to river drainages around
grayling numbers in a Mon- the Arctic Ocean, Hudson
tana river. Bay and the northern Pa-
The Associated Press ob- cific Ocean. A population
tained details of the de- in Michigan was wiped
cision not to protect the out last century, but scien-
fish under the Endangered tists are seeking to reintro-
Species Act in advance of duce the fish to parts of the
a public announcement. state.q
The move comes almost
two years after a federal
appeals court faulted the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice for arbitrarily dismiss-
ing threats to grayling from This photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows an Arctic grayling captured in a U.S.
climate change and other Fish and Wildlife Service fish trap at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge near Lima, Montana.
pressures. Associated Press
While some of those threats
will persist, government of- cized Wednesday's deci- firm that represented wild- ficials determined in 1994
ficials said conservation sion and said the worsen- life advocates in a lawsuit and again in 2010 that pro-
measures have improved ing climate crisis leaves the over the fish. tections were needed. But
the fish's habitat and will grayling's survival in doubt. Montana Tech professor they were never imposed
lessen future temperature Even with a commitment Pat Munday, a plaintiff in because other species
increases in the cold waters from ranchers along the Big the lawsuit who fishes the were given a higher prior-
where they reside. Hole to reduce the amount Big Hole regularly, said ity.
Known for their iridescent of water withdrawn to grow grayling have become in- The Fish and Wildlife Service
appearance and sail- hay, flows drop sharply dur- creasingly scarce over the in 2014 determined that
shaped dorsal fins, Arctic ing dry periods and imperil past three decades. Mun- protections were no lon-
grayling are members of grayling, they said. day alleged government ger needed because the
the salmon family that can Despite recent habitat im- biologists were "cooking landowner conservation
reach 30 inches (76 centi- provements, Arctic gray- the books" by inflating pop- agreement had helped the
meters) in length and are ling occupy only a fraction ulation estimates to justify fish rebound. Wildlife advo-
prized by many anglers. of the streams across the their decision. cates then sued in federal
Officials credited a con- upper Missouri River basin "The biologists and techni- court and prevailed before
servation agreement in- where they were histori- cians get better and better the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
volving landowners and cally widespread. The spe- at knowing where to an- Appeals in 2018.
government agencies for cies declined over the past ticipate grayling and they The appeals court faulted
recent improvements to century because of com- get better at finding them, the government for not
the grayling's river habitat petition from non-native but that doesn't mean the taking into account data
in southwestern Montana's fish and after their habitat numbers are increasing," that showed the fish's pop-
Big Hole Valley. was significantly altered said Munday, a professor ulation in the Big Hole River
The Big Hole River and its by dams and high summer of science and technology was then declining and for
tributaries — home to one water temperatures. studies and author of "Mon- dismissing the potential for
of the few native popula- "The commitment of land- tana's Last Best River: The climate change to cause
tions of the fish in the Lower owners along the Big Hole Big Hole and Its People." lower water flows and
48 states — saw grayling River is commendable Efforts to protect Arctic warmer temperatures.
numbers roughly double and absolutely essential grayling date to at least Federal wildlife officials said
during the last decade to for the survival of grayling. 1991, when wildlife advo- steps already taken, such
about 1,500 adult fish, said We question whether it's cates petitioned the gov- as more shade trees on
Fish and Wildlife Service bi- enough," said attorney Jen- ernment to add the fish to stream banks and the re-
ologist Jim Boyd. The popu- ny Harbine with Earthjus- its list of threatened and duced water withdrawals,
lation figure was derived tice, the environmental law endangered species. Of- have decreased the dura-
from an estimate of the
number of breeding fish.
"If you can increase the
number of breeding indi-
viduals, you can start to
feel really good about the
conservation efforts and
know they are truly work-
ing," he said.
Wildlife advocates criti-