Relay Team Transports Endangered Fish Species

Jun 21, 2022

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A sign stands in front of a stream, reading "Kendall Warm Springs Protected Fish Habitat, No Swimming, No Wading, No Fishing." — Signage in front of Kendall Warm Springs.

Transporting live fish safely, quickly and efficiently is no stranger to the Fish and Aquatic Conservation (FAC) Program. The program has been implementing creative transportation methods for live fish for 150 years. The end of May three FAC facilities worked together for safe and nimble transit of the endangered Kendall Warm Springs dace (Rhinichthys osculus thermalis).

Listed as endangered in 1970, the Kendal Warm Springs dace is a member of the Cyprinidae family (minnows) that reside in an 85-degree spring in their native range of western Wyoming. At less than two inches, they are a small but colorful fish. The males are bright purple and the females an olive green.

Early each summer, staff from the Jackson National Fish Hatchery, Wyoming, working with partners from the U.S. Forest Service and Wyoming Game, Fish and Parks to set traps at Kendall Springs and transport the captured fish to national fish hatcheries for captive breeding, monitoring, research, and refugia. This year’s captured dace needed to go from western Wyoming to Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery – a 14 hour drive from the source waters—in the far east corner of South Dakota.

Any way you spin it, a 14 hour drive is long, but coupled with an endangered species who is sensitive to variations in water temperature can be tricky. So a plan was hatched (pun intended).

Mitch Adams, a staff member at D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery and Archives, drove to Pinedale, Wyoming, on Tuesday, May 31. He got up at 4 a.m. the next day and drove two hours on gravel roads to Kendall Springs where he met Jake Kujawa from Jackson hatchery and Forest Service employee Kate Olsen who had set the dace traps the day before. They carefully emptied the traps into warm water collected on-site, gingerly packaged the precious cargo in insulated and oxygenated containers, and Mitch was on his return journey to Spearfish, South Dakota.

Awaiting Mitch’s arrival was Gavin’s Point Biological Science Technician, Chelsey Hand, who had arrived at D.C. Booth the evening before. Chelsey and Mitch wasted no time in transferring the box containing 15 Warm Springs dace into Chelsey’s vehicle and she was off on the last leg of the trip. She and the dace arrived safely at the Dace’s new home at 11 p.m.

Teamwork between various national fish hatcheries and partners ensured the safe transport of this endangered species. Thank you to all involved in this live fish transport for the future of the Kendall Warm Springs dace!