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ST. GEORGE — The Virgin River may rage, and stream flows may change across southern Utah, but biologists say this sensitive aquatic species is doing OK.
The Virgin River is home to six native fish species: desert suckers, speckled daces, flannelmouth suckers, Virgin spinedaces, Virgin River chubs and woundfins, some of which are listed under the Endangered Species Act, like the chub.
Virgin River chub are rare silvery-scaled minnows only found in southwestern Utah, southern Nevada and northern Arizona. The species is federally listed as endangered wherever it's found.
Each year, typically in October, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources monitors the species. They recently completed a project focused on chub, gathering data in six locations around southern Utah, said Kody Callister, a native aquatics biologist with the DWR's Washington County Field Office.
There are sites in Hurricane, near the Quail Creek Scout Camp, upstream of the Washington Dam and beneath an I-15 bridge in St. George, among others.
Division staff set traps at these locations, with each being about 500 meters long. While this project focused primarily on Virgin River chub, Callister said the nets may catch all six native species, as well as nonnative fish.
The project can provide valuable information for biologists.
"In order to make good management decisions, we need to know how the fish are doing, like in terms of population or reproduction or recruitment and survival," Callister said. "And so monitoring allows us, as the division and our partners, to make those decisions more informed, and it guides future management actions for fish and their habitat."
