Tuesday August 13, 2024
Center for Biological Diversity —
In response to a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed to protect the Santa Ana speckled dace in Southern California as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
“Protecting the speckled dace and their habitat under the Endangered Species Act would ensure they continue to swim throughout South Coast rivers,” said Jeff Miller, a senior conservation advocate at the Center. “We’ve already lost seven of our state’s unique freshwater fish species to extinction, with reckless water policies, unprecedented fires and climate-driven drought taking a toll on many fish in Southern California.”
The Santa Ana speckled dace is a small minnow species that lives in the Santa Ana, San Jacinto, San Gabriel and Los Angeles river systems. Speckled dace have been eliminated from three-quarters of their former stream habitats in Southern California because of dams and water diversions, which deplete stream flow and isolate fish populations, and habitat loss due to sprawl development.