By Peter J. Unmack
I arrange two trips per year to southern Nevada for Tropical FishKeepers Exchange and the Bay Area Killifish Association (both based in California) to undertake conservation work on threatened and endangered fish populations under the direction of Nevada Division of Wildlife biologist Jim Heinrich. The following is the report on our latest trip.
March 14-16 was our conservation weekend in southern Nevada. Unfortunately, turnout was very poor, with only three bodies present at our rendezvous. Despite this it was quite a successful and productive trip. First stop was the Virgin River at Mesquite, where we were monitoring reintroduced endangered woundfin (Plagopterus argentissimus) populations. Native fish were not very common, with only a few flannelmouth suckers (Catostomus latipinnis), desert suckers (Pantosteus clarki), two endangered Virgin chubs (Gila seminuda), one speckled dace (Rhinichthys osculus), and around 20 woundfin. Exotics included one carp (Cyprinus carpio) and literally thousands of red shiners (Cyprinella lutrensis).
The next day we headed to a local park for some hard labor adding rocks to a half mile of artificial stream being developed for native fish conservation in Boulder City. Thanks to Jim Heinrich for allowing us to contribute.
From here we headed to Ash Meadows for a day and a half. We removed all the encroaching reeds (Typha) from two springs to try to open up threatened pupfish (Cyprinodon nevadensis mionectes) habitat and reduce habitat for the exotic species there. We also removed around a thousand exotic fish (sailfin molly and gambusia), crayfish, and bullfrogs. During a six-month project there I have removed over 8000 exotics in 5-6 trips. Pupfish numbers appear to be improving, especially juveniles. Of course, one needs to keep removing exotics for the effect to continue. All collecting was done in conjunction with USFWS staff on the refuge. We also collected many shortfin molly and convict cichlids (including albinos) from Roger’s Springs by Lake Mead, one of the other sites I am studying.
I strongly encourage folks to get involved; everyone is welcome to join in. If interested, you should feel free to contact me ahead of time and I will provide you with trip details. We usually have two trips per annum to southern Nevada, one in the spring, the other in autumn.. Hopefully we will see a few more faces (including some new ones) on our next conservation trip this autumn.
Peter Unmack, PO Box 1454, Tempe AZ 85280 (peter.unmack@asu.edu)
— G.C.K.A. Newsletter, May 1997