Editorial: Not just another fish story

Tuesday, March 21, 2006 | 8:16 a.m.

Clues to the survival of Earth's ecosystems could lie in the declining health of an inch-long fish that is found only in the 500-foot depths of a hole near Pahrump. According to a story in Saturday's Las Vegas Sun, the Devils Hole pupfish population has shrunk to fewer than 100, and federal, state and local wildlife experts and scientists are scrambling to figure out why.

The fish, which lives deep in the vertical limestone cave in the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, was among the very first species to be protected under the landmark Endangered Species Act. The law protects species that are dwindling and, more importantly, the habitats that sustain them.

The pupfish's listing led to a 1976 Supreme Court ruling in which federal agencies were granted the right to protect the cave's water supplies - and, consequently, the water supplies needed to sustain other endangered species. Study of the fish also has provided important information in the study of evolution and lends clues about the development of the planet, biologists told the Sun.

But biologists told Sun reporter Launce Rake that the pupfish population is, for unknown reasons, dwindling very quickly. Wildlife officials are meeting later this month to discuss options for saving it from extinction.

Jim Deacon, a UNLV professor emeritus of biology and natural resources, summed it up best when he told the Sun that "a sustainable Earth sustains all species that live upon it. As we make it less sustainable by blinking out species so rapidly all over the world, we are making it a less desirable place to live on and making it less able to sustain our own species."