In response to a 2012 petition by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed to protect the Clear Lake hitch — a large minnow found only in Northern California’s Clear Lake and its tributaries — as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Clear Lake hitch numbers have declined precipitously as their habitat has been degraded and destroyed.
“I’m relieved that strong protections are on the way for these iconic fish who embody the hope for a restored Clear Lake, and whose persistence is so meaningful for indigenous cultures,” said Jeff Miller, a senior conservation advocate at the Center. “The hitch need immediate emergency actions if they’re going to survive. Endangered Species Act protections can help ensure that happens.”
Clear Lake hitch migrate each spring, when adults make their way into the streams that connect to Clear Lake to spawn before returning to the lake. Millions of hitch once crowded into the lake’s tributaries during spectacular spawning runs. These masses of hitch were a vital part of the Clear Lake ecosystem and an important food source for numerous birds, other fish and wildlife. Hitch were also a staple food and a cultural mainstay for the original Pomo inhabitants of the region. Now just a few thousand adult fish spawn in a good year, with numbers dipping much lower in recent years.
The primary threat to Clear Lake hitch is a lack of water flowing in the tributaries during their spring spawning. This is caused by water over-withdrawal, both legal and illegal, that is being worsened by climate change-driven drought. The hitch are also threatened by fish-passage barriers, habitat degradation, pollution, and predation and competition from invasive fish such as carp and bass.
The hitch need emergency action to survive, including captive rearing, preventing illegal water withdrawals, controlling invasive predatory fish and maintaining adequate water flows.
The Clear Lake hitch’s closest relative was the Clear Lake splittail, a fish driven to extinction by the 1970s because of habitat alterations that dried out spawning streams and barriers that prevented their spawning migrations.
“Unless stream and wetland habitats are restored and the fish reintroduced into former spawning tributaries, Clear Lake’s hitch may go extinct like the lake’s former splittail population,” Miller said. “We can’t let that happen.”
Don’s response: First of all, there is alot that isn’t said in this…To be able to remove debris in the creeks there needs to be a change mind set. If you really want these habitats to be restored, other water agenances need to allow to happen. Also, many of the studies that were done on Clear Lake regarding the Hitch were performed at areas where the fish don’t live.I personally have seen shcools of serveral thousands of Hitch. It looks to me that the are doing just fine. Also what is not said here is the plan to rid the lake of all the bass and other species of fish that are not native. This train of thought comes from the same people that want remove Lake Pillsbury and Lake Sonoma. Really? So, here is the bigggie. Lake County, like Mendocino County really does not have all that much to hang there hats on. Take away the bass fishing tournaments on Clear Lake and will be a big loss in the revenue that is brought into the county. Classic Califorina thinking.
Thanks for reading and remember to keep it reel! Don = 4REEL Fishin’
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