Edwin Philip PisterĪmong the scientists who came to the rescue that day was a stocky, irascible 40-year old fish biologist named Phil Pister. It happened so quickly, that when scientists learned of the problem, they realized they had just hours to save the fish from extinction.
Mono lake evidences showing shrinking lake level geo 5 series#
On August 18, 1969, a series of heavy rains caused foliage to grow and clog the inflow of water into the small pool. Many were not, and by the late 1960s, the only remaining population of Owens pupfish, about 800 individuals, barely hung on in a “room-sized” pond near Bishop. Wildlife officials immediately began a rescue mission to save the fish and reintroduce them into what were considered suitable habitats. That is, until one day in 1964, when researchers discovered a remnant population of Owens pupfish in a desert marshland called Fish Slough, a few miles from Bishop, California. The impact on the Owens pupfish habitat was so severe that in 1948, just after it was scientifically described, it was declared extinct. According to news stories, he stomped on the fish when he tried to swim in a fenced off pool in Death Valley National Park.
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The Devils Hole pupfish recently played the lead role in a recent story about a man who accidentally killed one of the fish during a drunken spree. Several species, including the Owens pupfish, the Death Valley Pupfish and the Devils Hole pupfish are some of the rarest species of fish on the planet. Several species of pupfish in the state have been put on the endangered species list. The remains of the Owens River flowing through Owens Valley in California. Add to these conditions, the early 20th-century introduction by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife of exotic species like largemouth bass and rainbow trout to lakes and streams in the eastern Sierras, and you get a recipe for disaster. The disappearance of water altogether is another.Īs California has developed, and as climate change has caused temperatures to rise, thus increasing evaporation, all of California’s pupfish populations have come under stress. They are also known to survive in near-freezing temperatures common in the lower desert.īut hot or cold are one thing. Some live in water that exceeds 100° Fahrenheit, and they can even tolerate up to 113° degrees for short periods. They can tolerate high levels of salinity. Pupfish are well-known among scientists for being able to live in extreme and isolated situations. So named because they exhibit playful, puppy-like behavior, the Owens pupfish rapidly began to disappear. One of those animals is the Owens pupfish. It was great news for the new city, but terrible news for many of the creatures (not to mention the farmers) who depended on the water flowing into and from the Owens Lake to survive. Through a series of shady deals, Mulholland and Eaton managed to get control of the water in the Owens Valley and, in 1913, the aqueduct was finished. Fred Eaton, mayor of Los Angeles, and his water czar, William Mulholland, hatched a plan to build an aqueduct from Owens Valley to Los Angeles. William Mulhollandīut by the late 1900s, the city began outgrowing its water supply. While considered an ugly younger sibling to the city of San Francisco, Los Angeles had the appeal of near year-round sunshine and sandy beaches whose beauty that rivaled those of the French Riviera. In the late 19th century, Los Angeles was a rapidly growing young metropolis, still in throes of growing pains that would last decades.
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The Paiute people scooped them out of the water and dried them for the winter. Pupfish were common, with nine species populating various lakes and streams from Death Valley to an ara just south of Mammoth Lakes. Endemic to California’s Owens Valley, 200 miles north of Los Angeles, the fish has lived on the planet since the Pleistocene, becoming a new species when its habitat was divided by changing climatic conditions, 60,000 years ago.įor thousands of years, the Owens Valley was largely filled with water, crystal-clear snowmelt that still streams off the jagged, precipitous slab faces of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Less than 2.5 inches in length, the Owens pupfish is a silvery-blue fish in the family Cyprinodontidae. 51 years ago today a man named Edwin Philip Pister rescued an entire species from extinction.