Thursday April 17, 2025
Las Vegas Review-Journal —
The seemingly sequestered, deep-blue swimming hole that the world’s rarest fish calls home isn’t immune to shifts in the tectonic plates. Luckily, scientists have been planning for years.
Earthquakes — one in December and another in February — are part of the reason that National Park Service scientists recorded only 38 fish in their semiannual survey of Devils Hole pupfish, the agency said in a news release on Tuesday. Last spring, that number was much higher, at 191 fish.
“The present size at near-record lows deserves our serious attention,” Michael Schwemm, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fish biologist, said in a statement.
For the first time, scientists have successfully introduced into the wild 19 fish raised in captivity at the nearby Ash Meadows Fish Conservation Facility.
The pupfish species, found only in a pool called Devils Hole near Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, is protected by the federal Endangered Species Act, as well as a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that stifled attempts at groundwater pumping in the area.