I know that this article is from July of 2020, but still interesting and worthy of sharing here.
The only catfish native to the Western U.S. is running out of water
The Yaqui catfish was already going extinct. Then came the border wall.
In the spring of 2016, biologists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service came to a terrible realization: The Yaqui catfish, the only catfish species native to the Western United States, was on the cusp of disappearing. After a week of searching, they could catch only two wild fish. They estimated that, at most, just 30 fish remained.
For approximately two decades, the last known Yaqui catfish in the United States had been kept in artificial ponds built in and around San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, on the Arizona-Sonora border, and at a local zoo. Creatures of rivers and wetlands, they had not reproduced. Still, federal and state biologists felt they had to try one more time. In a last-ditch breeding effort, the agency gathered 11 fish and shipped them to a hatchery in Kansas. Within weeks, all of them died. Eventually, even the one geriatric catfish left on display at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum had to be put down.
Today, the Yaqui catfish, a whiskery-looking creature that evolved at least 2 million years ago and was once common enough for people to catch for food, is functionally extinct in the United States. There may be a few still hidden in Arizona’s ponds, but not enough to keep a population alive. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2019 five-year review of the species, it’s on the brink of global extinction; even as the catfish faces ongoing threats in Mexico, scientists don’t know enough about its basic biology to save it.
The only catfish native to the Western U.S. is running out of water
The only catfish native to the Western U.S. is running out of water
The Yaqui catfish was already going extinct. Then came the border wall.
In the spring of 2016, biologists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service came to a terrible realization: The Yaqui catfish, the only catfish species native to the Western United States, was on the cusp of disappearing. After a week of searching, they could catch only two wild fish. They estimated that, at most, just 30 fish remained.
For approximately two decades, the last known Yaqui catfish in the United States had been kept in artificial ponds built in and around San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, on the Arizona-Sonora border, and at a local zoo. Creatures of rivers and wetlands, they had not reproduced. Still, federal and state biologists felt they had to try one more time. In a last-ditch breeding effort, the agency gathered 11 fish and shipped them to a hatchery in Kansas. Within weeks, all of them died. Eventually, even the one geriatric catfish left on display at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum had to be put down.
Today, the Yaqui catfish, a whiskery-looking creature that evolved at least 2 million years ago and was once common enough for people to catch for food, is functionally extinct in the United States. There may be a few still hidden in Arizona’s ponds, but not enough to keep a population alive. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2019 five-year review of the species, it’s on the brink of global extinction; even as the catfish faces ongoing threats in Mexico, scientists don’t know enough about its basic biology to save it.
The only catfish native to the Western U.S. is running out of water