What's the Problem Again?

The Mohave tui chub is the only known fish that is native to the Mojave River. It is believed that the demise of the tui chub in its native habitat was due to a phenomenon called “death from a thousand cuts”, inferring that many individual assaults on its existence have “ganged up” on a species over time pushing it to the fringe of its original habitat and to the edge of extinction. The forces that are believed to have created this situation include: the introduction of exotic, non-native sport fish into the waters of the Mojave River watershed, the introduction of a next of kin baitfish called the Arroyo chub, and human encroachment on the resources that the tui chub rely upon. These outside influences coupled with natural cycles that bring storms and floods mixed with periods of droughts, the tui chub has been all but eliminated from the river it once called home, endanger of the final peril for any species, extinction. The last surviving remnant of this species in the “wild” was discovered isolated from the Mojave River in a small, spring fed pool on the shore of Soda Dry Lake, an ancient inland Mojave Desert lake near Baker, California.

Why is the Mohave tui chub facing extinction anyway?

Exactly why the Mohave tui chub is facing extinction is unknown, however some contributing causes have been suggested. They range from natural cyclic long-term and climate change across the Mojave to the multiple impacts of human habitation in and along the Mojave River’s Watershed. In recent history, however, it is believed that human impacts (the introduction of non-native plants, amphibians, and fish to the watershed coupled with the exploitation of groundwater reserves) have had the greatest impact when coupled with the natural cycles of flooding and drought across the watershed.

At present there are added concerns about weather or not the existing gene pool within the current refugia populations is rich/broad/diverse enough support a population that can adapt to changing condition that might exist across the watershed.