Perry County residents will have the opportunity to help a rare, local fish in the next month.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a draft plan to save this unique fish and is opening a 60-day public comment period.
The public is invited to provide comment on the draft plan through January 29, 2024. U.S Fish and Wildlife is seeking comment and information regarding the current threats to the speices, ongoing beneficial management efforts, and the costs associated with implementing the recommended recovery actions.
A person can submit comments on the draft document to Vona Kuczynska at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Missouri Ecological Services Field Office, 101 Park DeVille Drive, Suite A, Columbia, MO 65203 or via email at vona_kuczynska@fws.gov.
The grotto sculpin is a small fish, measuring less than five inches long. This species is found in just five cave systems in Perry County. These fish complete a seasonal migration from underground streams to surface streams in the area. Typical of many cave-dwelling species, it is nearly blind and pale-colored. Since the species has such a small range, population-scale fish kills are of particular concern and can occur when contaminants from the surface wash into the cave streams that the grotto sculpin call home.
Listed as endangered in 2013, the most substantial threats to grotto sculpin come from present or threatened destruction, modification or curtailment of its habitat, including water quality degradation. The draft recovery plan focuses on protecting the species and enhancing their habitat by managing human access to cave systems, managing surface habitat around the caves and monitoring water quality. The plan also focuses on protecting and enhancing habitat around sinkholes and learning more about the threats to the species.
Partnerships have been critical in preventing species decline and provide a solid foundation for recovery actions. Because these fish are sensitive to water quality, the presence of grotto sculpin within the cave systems is a sign that water entering from aboveground is being properly managed for contaminants and is likely to positively impact not only on other cave-dwelling species but also Perry County residents that rely on streams in the area for recreation, business purposes and household use.
Recovery planning is one step in a process to address threats to endangered and threatened species. Plans provide a road map for private, Tribal, federal and state cooperation in conserving listed species and their ecosystems. While a recovery plan provides guidance on how best to help listed species achieve recovery, it is not a regulatory document.
The U.S Wildlife Service stated that the recovery of the grotto sculpin is contingent on the species viability, which is defined as its ability to sustain populations in natural ecosystems within a biologically meaningful timeframe. In our SSA analysis, we used the conservation principles of resiliency, redundancy, and representation to assess viability of the grotto sculpin For populations to be resilient to stochastic events such as normal variation in temperature and rainfall as well as ongoing threats such as the effects of anthropogenic activities such as., sedimentation and toxic chemicals from multiple sources and alterations in water flow, they need to have an abundance of individuals of multiple age classes with sufficient genetic diversity and with evidence of reproduction and recruitment of juveniles into the population Factors influencing resiliency of the grotto sculpin include availability of high-quality freshwater and food resources and spawning/nesting and subadult/adult habitat availability and connectivity).
To withstand catastrophic events, the species needs multiple, resilient populations distributed across its historical range relative to the spatial occurrence of those potential catastrophic events. To persist or adapt in the face of changing environmental conditions, resilient populations should be
distributed across the historical range of the species or the evolutionary or adaptive capacity of
the species
Because the grotto sculpin currently occurs throughout its natural range, albeit highly restricted, the recovery strategy is to maintain the current number and distribution of populations while improving the resiliency of the populations to achieve long-term viability.
