Grieve for the gravel chub. Mourn the mud sunfish. Say sayonara to the spoonhead sculpin. And pour one out for the lake chubsucker.
Once native to New York, these four fish no longer live here according to a recently updated list of imperiled species compiled by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
DEC’s website has the full list of NY’s endangered, threatened, and special concern fish and wildlife species.
In 1999, the last time DEC updated the list, these fish were classified as either threatened or endangered, the latter being the most serious level reserved for animals on the verge of being extirpated from the Empire State.
Extirpated doesn’t mean extinct, however. Healthy populations of these fish can be still found outside New York.
But their new DEC designation was a long time coming.
Nobody in NY has laid eyes on a lake chubsucker, for example, since 1939.
But the stubby, olive-green fish — not to be confused with smaller creek chubsucker — is still abundant just over the Canadian border in Lyons Creek, south of Niagara Falls.
Same goes for the spoonhead sculpin, a cold-water species once found in Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. It hasn’t been seen around these parts since Harry S. Truman was president.
Disappearing burbot
The status of eight fish on the list remains unchanged, and only two—the gilt darter and silver chub—are classified as endangered, as they were in 1999.
DEC’s updated list contains 16 new fish species, mostly minnows with colorful names like the swallowtail shiner or tonguetied minnow.
But more familiar species such as the American eel, lake whitefish, and burbot also made the list for the first time.
The majority of these newcomers are species of special concern, the lowest level of classification. Their declines are often linked to climate change and invasive species, DEC said.
Lisa Holst, a DEC rare fish biologist who helped draft the new regulations, pointed to the burbot, the only freshwater species of cod, as a good example of a fish with a dim future in NY thanks to global warming.
Once common to Oneida Lake, anglers often regarded burbot as a trash fish and discarded them on the ice to die.
But burbots are all but gone from Oneida Lake now, Holst said, and their numbers are declining across the state due to warming waters.
“Burbot are a cold-water species,” Holst said. “And places like Oneida Lake now gets very, very warm in the summer and even stays kind of warm through the winter.”
On the plus side
A critter can leave DEC’s list in two ways: disappear from within state boundaries, like the lake chubsucker, or recover to the point it no longer requires protection.
On the plus side, three fish — black redhorse, mountain brook lamprey, and streamline chub — were dropped from the list because they’ve been doing just fine since 1999.
Things also got better over the past two decades for six other species, including the bluebreast darter, pugnose shiner, and round whitefish.
DEC credits improvements in water quality, habitat protection, and targeted stocking programs for these success stories.
Likewise, the decline of many fish species can be chalked up to poor water quality and habitat destruction.
An important regulatory tool
The updated list of endangered fish is the first in a series of regulations DEC is working on over the next two years to update the conservation status of all the state’s endangered and threatened native species, including birds, mammals, and insects.
“We look at historic data and the present-day data,” Holst said. “The data comes from our own staff. It also comes from a number of partners, universities, private consulting firms, and the federal government as well.”
DEC’s endangered species list is an important regulatory tool for safeguarding the state’s biodiversity. A protected species cannot be harvested or harassed, and its habitat cannot be destroyed, without a permit.
“Say we’re working with a town, or the state Department of Transportation, and they’re working on a bridge for a stream crossing,” Holst said. “Can the bridge be moved? Can the work be moved to a different time of year when the fish won’t be present?”
In addition to issuing permits, DEC has other ways to protect endangered species. Statewide enforcement of keystone conservation laws like the Clean Water Act is critical, but DEC also improves local habitats on a project basis.
“If a species needs gravel to breed on, or if it needs weeds to hide in, we can try to improve the habitat itself,” Holst said. “We can reconnect sections of rivers if there are dams or culverts.”
Through the Bureau of Fisheries, the state also operates 12 fish hatcheries, “some of which actually help us raise these rare and endangered species,” Holst said.
The Oneida Fish Culture Station in Constantia is well known as the state’s primary walleye hatchery. But it also raises lake sturgeon, a threatened species that is now close to recovery after 30 years of stocking efforts.
Unintended consequences
In the grand scheme of things, it would be easy to dismiss the loss of a few obscure minnow species.
After all, the popular sportfish that sell fishing licenses and fishing gear, like walleye, bass, and trout, are all doing fine.
But ecosystems are vastly complex. Removing one species, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem, can have unintended consequences.
Minnows, for instance, eat phytoplankton. If we don’t protect them, we could end up with more frequent harmful algal blooms, Holst said, or create niches for invasive species to exploit.
“We’re protecting these things for the people of the state of New York,” Holst said. “We’re the trustees of these resources that are here for you today, but also for your children and your children’s children.”