For the fifth time, biologists are reportedly proposing to poison a remote Sierra stream to restore what might be America's rarest trout.
The controversial plan by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service and California Department of Fish and Game, involves the use of a chemical to clear non-native fish from Silver King Creek south of Lake Tahoe, the Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal reported Monday.
Eliminating the non-native fish would allow the threatened Paiute cutthroat trout to flourish in its native habitat, but opponents concerned about use of the chemical rotenone in the mountain creek have blocked the project each of the last four summers.
For the latest attempt, the federal government plans to present a $125,000 full environmental impact statement to show the project can succeed without any significant environmental problems.
Opponents call the proposal a "very risky undertaking."
"Basically, rotenone is designed to sterilize the stream, not just the target fish," Patty Clary, executive director of Californians for Alternatives to Toxics, told the Gazette-Journal. "It wipes out everything. You don't know what you're losing that won't ever come back again."
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
Related stories:
Silent streams? Escalating endangerment for North American freshwater fish
Nearly 40 percent of fish species in North American streams, rivers and lakes are now in jeopardy, according to the most detailed evaluation of the conservation status of freshwater fishes in the last 20 years.
Tiny invasive snail impacts Great Lakes, alters ecology
Long a problem in the western U.S., the New Zealand mud snail currently inhabits four of the five Great Lakes and is spreading into rivers and tributaries, according to a Penn State team of researchers. These tiny creatures out-compete native snails and insects, but are not good fish food replacements for the native species.
Key site in iron metabolism aids in diagnosing anemia of chronic disease
University of Utah School of Medicine researchers have developed a new tool that facilitates diagnosis of anemia related to chronic illness, as well as diseases of iron overload. The results of a study detailing the new tool are published in the August 2008 issue of the journal
Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press.
Metabolic insight to illuminate causes of iron imbalance
New insight into key players in iron metabolism has yielded a novel tool for distinguishing among root causes of iron overload or deficiency in humans, the researchers report in the August issue of
Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press. While the body needs iron to produce hemoglobin, a substance in red blood cells that enables them to carry oxygen, too much iron can build up and eventually damage organs.
Fishing ban guards coral reefs against predatory starfish outbreaks
No-take marine reserves where fishing is banned can have benefits that extend beyond the exploited fishes they are specifically designed to protect, according to new evidence from Australia's Great Barrier Reef reported in the July 22nd issue of
Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. Researchers have found that outbreaks of large, predatory crown-of-thorns starfish (
Acanthaster planci), which can devastate coral reefs, occur less often in protected zones, although they don't yet know exactly why.
Researchers say popular fish contains potentially dangerous fatty acid combination
Farm-raised tilapia, one of the most highly consumed fish in America, has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and, perhaps worse, very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, according to new research from Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
NYU biologists show how eye's neurons switch functions during metamorphosis
Researchers at New York University's Center for Developmental Genetics report that the photoreceptors in an insect's eye can change their traditional functions during metamorphosis. The study appears in the most recent issue of the journal
Nature. The researchers found that when photoreceptors responsible for detecting the color green die off during metamorphosis a second class of photoreceptors—those responsible for detecting the color blue—then fill the role of detecting the color green. These rare switches, the authors speculate, are likely the result of changing life patterns.
A Great Lakes mystery: The case of the disappearing species
Throughout the overlooked depths of Lake Michigan and other Great Lakes, a small but important animal is rapidly disappearing. Until recently, the animal - a shrimplike, energy-dense creature called Diporeia - was a major food source for commercially important species like lake whitefish and many prey fish upon which salmon, trout and walleye rely.