To understand the future of the Colorado River, look to a frowny, eel-faced fish: the humpback chub | |
By Judy Fahys |
Source: colorado sun |
7/9/2020 |
|
|
|
Charismatic is hardly the best word to describe the humpback chub, a fish with a frowny eel face jammed onto a sportfish body in a way that suggests evolution has a sense of humor.
Nor did tastiness build a fan base for this “trash fish” across its natural habitat throughout the Colorado River Basin. But, in 1973, the humpback chub became famous by winning federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Researchers in the Grand Canyon now spend weeks at a time, several times a year, monitoring humpback chub, which has become central to an ecosystem science program with implications for millions of westerners who rely on Colorado River water.
Dennis Harris, who guides an electrofishing boat for a research contractor, is part of the science crew that briefed me last year at the world’s largest known humpback chub hangout, just below the confluence of the Little Colorado River with the Colorado in Arizona. He spun a yarn about what fish say upon their return to home waters—how they survived an alien abduction. |
|
|
“They scooped me up in a net and took me to the Mother Ship and stuck me with a piece of glass and probed my genitals and brought me back here,’” Harris said, throwing his head back and splaying his arms to imitate fish stunned by the electric current.
“And all their friends go, ‘Yeah, right.’”
Funny as that sounds, the humpback chub’s experience is surprisingly meaningful now, as its river habitat deep in the iconic, redrock canyon becomes the subject of new scrutiny. New negotiations about the Colorado’s future begin later this year in a world that has fundamentally changed since foundational water agreements were drawn up, back when the river was flush and the entire basin was treated like a giant network of irrigation ditches. |
|
|
|
News Id | | Source | Stamp | country |
3026 | Supersized Goldfish Could Become Superinvaders | scientificamerican | 2022-03-23 | CA |
3027 | Fish on Australia's Great Barrier Reef are losing their COLOUR as coral reefs decline, study finds | dailymail | 2022-03-23 | UK |
3028 | Cichlids and stingrays can add and subtract ‘one’ in the number space from one to five | nature | 2022-03-31 | US |
3029 | Россия решила пересмотреть несправедливые квоты на вылов рыбы американцами в Беринговом море | topcor | 2022-04-01 | RU |
3030 | Bridge over Chilligo-Ellis Creek in Hespeler due to be replaced | therecord | 2020-04-13 | CA |
3031 | Chilligo Creek will be environmental playground | Cambridge Times | 2008-05-01 | CA |
3032 | Anglers face new two-salmon bag limit in bid to rebuild fishery | stuff | 2022-03-14 | NZ |
3033 | Otters kill 8 koi fish & 50 goldfish reared for 13 years in Yio Chu Kang, family dog couldn't save them | mothership | 2022-03-17 | CA |
3034 | Massive 95-pound catfish ‘by far the largest’ trophy fish caught by these Kentucky men | centredaily | 2022-03-17 | US |
3035 | B.C. premier discusses concerns with Trudeau about jobs if fish farms close | national observer | 2022-03-17 | CA |
3036 | Critically endangered sawfish caught off Karnataka coast. | New Delhi | 2022-03-13 | US |
3037 | An ice fishing lesson for our changing climate in New York | WSKG | 2022-03-14 | US |
3038 | Алгоритмы и рыбалка: как работает мозг программиста в естественной среде обитания | HABR | 2022-03-30 | RU |
3039 | 'Monster' fish with sharp teeth spotted on Par beach in Cornwall | cornwalllive | 2022-03-15 | UK |
3040 | Catch of enormous ‘living dinosaur’ had anglers in disbelief | usatoday | 2022-03-15 | US |
3041 | Influencers ingest substance found in fish tank cleaners as ‘cognitive enhancer,’ get ridiculed by doctors | pennlive | 2022-03-17 | US |
3042 | Combatting Silver Carp: TN implants tracking devices in invasive fish to follow their movements | WBIR | 2022-03-17 | US |
3043 | Conservationists buy fishing licence in Great Barrier Reef to create net-free safe haven for dugongs | theguardian | 2022-03-14 | AU |
3044 | Fish Found Covered in Strange Circular Bite Marks: 'Really Weird Stuff Going On' | newsweek | 2022-03-15 | NZ |
3045 | 'Technological creep’ and why some worry it's destroying fishing? | PennLive | 2022-03-17 | US |
3046 | East Toba and Montrose Hydroelectric Project | canadianconsultingengineer | 2012-03-01 | CA |
3047 | Woman, 52, who ran illegal flounder operation fined, has boat seized | nzherald | 2022-03-06 | NZ |
3048 | 2nd state record fish caught in Georgia river in just over a year | Fox News | 2022-03-07 | US |
3049 | Fishermen catch a rare fish weighing 1000kgs, costs around Rs. 40,000 | thehansindia | 2022-03-10 | IN |
3050 | Harvey George, master carver of fish boats, dies | sookenewsmirror | 2022-03-07 | US |
|
|
|
|
|