MARK WAITE / PVT Divers return to the surface after checking on the health and welfare of Devil's Hole's population of pupfish. Advertisement

AMARGOSA VALLEY -- A team of four divers suited up on a cool, blustery Saturday afternoon, walked down a ladder into a crevasse in the middle of the desert and proceeded to dive 100 feet down into a clear desert pool.

It wasn't just any pool however, and their objective wasn't just enjoying a sport dive which included some cave diving. The object was to count the population of Devil's Hole pupfish, a tiny fish barely an inch long that has created a big controversy.

When the divers came bubbling back up after about an hour, the verdict was as widely anticipated by the bevy of environmental workers on hand as whether one's first child is a boy or a girl.

The verdict: The endangered Devil's Hole pupfish is still alive and kicking.

Divers estimated there are 38 pupfish remaining, the same as last spring, but down from an estimate of 85 last fall, when numbers are typically higher. Those numbers, however, are down sharply from as many as 300 to 500 in 1995.

The National Park Service won a U.S. Supreme Court case in the 1970s that protected the pupfish habitat at Devil's Hole. The park service continues to protest applications to pump water near Devil's Hole in Amargosa Valley.

But continued declines in population from between 300 and 500 to a matter of only dozens, with the species under intense protection efforts, has scientists scratching their heads, according to Terry Baldino, chief of interpretation for Death Valley National Park.

"In the 1970s, when the water pumping was going on at such an extreme rate and we were watching the water levels drop so rapidly, we could point at that and say that's the problem. Once the water pumping stopped, the water level came up, fish numbers came up, that was it. Since then they're going down but the water level hasn't been dropping as rapidly. Now the question is: Is it still the water dropping or is there some other factor?"

Baldino said experts are turning their attention to monitoring water quality, not quantity. They lack long-term monitoring data. There could be nutrients in the water. The annual dry and wet cycles of rainfall don't have much effect on the water level in Devil's Hole, Baldino said. He said the aquifer is part of water that has been stored underground for thousands of years.

Propagation efforts at the Point of Rocks refugium in Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge resulted in the accidental infiltration of Amargosa pupfish causing a hybrid population there, Baldino said. That breeding site, with characteristics that mimic Devil's Hole, has been cleaned out for another attempt.

The Mandalay Bay Resort has also been trying to propagate the fish, Baldino said.

"Numbers like 30 -- that's the lowest it's ever been. That's scary when you think that's the entire population. The one thing that I will say is this year, what we tried to do, knowing that the winter time is the most stressful time for the pupfish, we initiated in February a supplemental feeding because when the angle of the sun changes, algae can't grow, which is their primary food source," Baldino said.

It's hoped the fish will be healthy coming into spring to have a productive reproductive season, he said. There's hope that may come to fruition, he said. The larvae counts have been high this spring, which are counted in monthly surveys taken at night.

Jeannie Stafford, public affairs specialist for the Nevada Fish and Wildlife Service, said there are different theories as to the dip in population.

"There are some that will suggest it could be a genetic thing from when the water pumping was so low in the 1970s that it's just now come into effect," she said.

Bob Williams, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service field supervisor, said he sees the glass as half full instead of half empty. Scientists have learned something about propagation efforts.

"While we would like the numbers to be higher we haven't lost any ground either," Williams said.

With all the work, all the emphasis that has taken place on the propagation efforts at Ash Meadows, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is very interested in hearing the numbers, Williams said. But Baldino noted the sighting isn't totally precise.

"When they do these counts, they're doing their best to count every individual fish, but it's really difficult to make sure that you've actually caught every fish. They're also counting for the most part adult or immature fish," Baldino said.

Interested members of the public took advantage of the rare chance to enter the fenced-in Devil's Hole site and walk down to the water, which is at a constant 93 degrees and is so deep, scientists don't know the depth.

So why should the average person be so concerned if the little fish go extinct? That's a question wildlife experts don't appear happy to hear.

"We need to tell people they're as valuable as the bald eagle and worth saving," Baldino said. "It'd be real scary for the fish to disappear and never know it. That'd be a tragedy because there's so much we could learn from it.

"You have to look at the bigger picture. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The aquifer doesn't even originate in this part of Nevada.

"The amount of life supported by this water is tremendous. This species is like a canary in a coal mine," he said. "If this species goes, it's a trigger. What else goes?"

The Devil's Hole pupfish lived in its tiny pool for thousands of years before humans, Baldino said.

"Can we learn something from that and live in this harsh desert environment with a quality life?"