Trout Once Believed To Be Extinct Makes A Comeback

Even as scientists warn of the impending loss of thousands of species of plants and animals due to climate change, conservation efforts continue to bring organisms back from endangerment or, as in the case of the Lahontan cutthroat trout, believed extinction.

As Nevada’s state fish, the trout can be found in Pyramid Lake, which today lies on the Paiute Indian reservation. And while once plentiful and free to grow to as large as 40 pounds, successive events during the 19th and 20th centuries led to the animal’s sharp decline.

These activities included excessive fishing in an effort to feed miners and loggers as far away as San Fransisco, as well as the damming of the Truckee River where the fish spawned. Finally, after a nonnative char called lake trout was introduced to Lake Tahoe, devouring the cutthroat trout, the strain was declared extinct and the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe established a new cutthroat fishery in 1974 with stocks originating from nearby lakes.

Forty years later, however, inland trout taxonomist Robert Benke made a stunning discovery.

Tucked away in an isolated part of a rugged stream along the Utah-Nevada border known as Pilot Peak, Benke discovered a population of trout that looked precisely like those deemed gone.

Sure enough, a DNA test decades later revealed a perfect match, upon which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) began a brood stock at a hatchery that, despite humble beginnings, grew to house nearly 3,000 trout that release their offspring into local waters each year.

According to the FWS, genetic diversity is carefully preserved and tracked by placing a pit tag into each fish containing a specific genetic lineage along with age and growth. Then, when spawning season occurs each year, a computer system has already matched the best mate for each fish in a sort of eHarmony for trout.

Thus far, the effort has shown multiple signs of success, including an increase in fish size, which is reguarly reaching 20 pounds, according to anglers.

Ultimately, the FWS reports, that through the “continued collaboration of federal, state and tribal governments the Lahontan cutthroat is on the road to recovery in its native habitats.”