MARK WAITE / PVT Nye County Hydrologist Tom Buqo tells Devil's Hole workshop attendees to leave the pup fish alone if they want to see population declines halted. Advertisement

DEATH VALLEY, Calif. -- Nye County's hydrologist told the annual gathering of scientists at the Devil's Hole workshop here last Wednesday to just leave the pup fish alone if they want to restore its numbers.

The decline in pup fish numbers isn't the fault of Pahrump Valley developers or Amargosa Valley farmers, he said.

"We will not leave that fish alone," Buqo said. "The gene pool -- we reduced it to a gene puddle."

The latest spring count, taken on April 5, came up with a census of 45 pup fish, seven more than in the spring of 2007.

Buqo, who has participated in 11 previous annual Devil's Hole workshops and represents Nye County on hydrology issues, outlined the history of studies on the Devil's Hole pup fish.

In 1971, biologists transplanted 125 pup fish to an aquarium. The highest count of pup fish ever was 553.

In 1981, a few more pup fish were moved to a nearby refugium. Then in 1988, 33 were moved to a Hoover Dam refugium. A year later, the Hoover Dam population of pup fish died and were restocked. In 1999, the transplanted pup fish were evolving into something other than Devil's Hole pup fish.

The population increased to 294.

Then came the tragedy of Sept. 4, 2003, when an estimated 37 percent of the Devil's Hole pup fish population accidentally died in fish traps.

In 2005, researchers accidentally dumped sediment on the algae beds that form the pup fish's habitat.

"The population of Devil's Hole pup fish has been reduced on multiple occasions over the last 30 years as a direct result of human interference. Not one farmer has gone over there and taken any fish out of that cave -- not one," Buqo said. "There's been no documented cases over the last 30 years of any fish having died through a result of any acts by any Nye County citizens."

He argued the refugia where pup fish are transplanted have contributed to the decline in their numbers.

"Because of the documented reduction in the pup fish population due to research-related activities, accidents, going in, taking them out for gut checks, going in and putting them into refugiums, whatever, you have to take those declines into account before you can attempt to blame it on the public," Buqo said.

While scientists at the convention were "fixated" on water levels of Devil's Hole, data have to account for events like earthquakes, such as occurred in the mid 1930s, he said.

"The Devil's Hole pup fish is on the verge of extinction. It got down to 38 pup fish. So what do we do now?" Buqo asked. "Well, it seems like we don't learn from our past mistakes."

Researchers continue to transplant pup fish to other locations, he said. With 45 fish now in the cave, there are plans to transplant a dozen of them.

"Last observation, the (water) levels of Devil's Hole fluctuated over the last 11 years with little or no net decline. Actually, there's been a net increase over the last 11 years," Buqo said. "But we've been off on this crusade against water development and all things having anything to do with water in Nye County. New appropriation of water over a large region has been denied and for all intents and purposes been shut off."

Protests of simple applications for changing the diversion of water rights in Amargosa Valley can put off projects for longer than two years, he said.

"The impact of concentrating on water use in Nye County has not helped the pup fish but it has cost the county, the public and the taxpayers," Buqo said.

Buqo said federal agencies now want to restrict more land by declaring areas around Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge an Area of Critical Environmental Concern.

"The decline in the population of Devil's Hole pup fish is directly attributable to human interference disguised as management," Buqo said. "We have not seen anything good come from taking, reducing the population of pup fish and putting them over here and putting them over there."

Instead of donning scuba gear and taking the twice annual census of pup fish, Buqo asked, "Haven't you people heard of cameras? You could put cameras in there. We have high technology, you don't have to go in there year after year disturbing that fish."