Death Valley National Park, straddling the California-Nevada border - attracts a lot of superlatives. It's the largest national park in the contiguous US, as well as the lowest, the hottest, and the driest. The latter two might make it seem like an unlikely place to look for fish - and you'd largely be right. That being said, Death Valley is also home to Devils Hole, a geographic formation that is the only known natural habitat of the tiny, beautiful, and critically endangered Devils Hole pupfish. This past week, the fish, one of the world's rarest, might have just got rarer.
A recent earthquake jolted the habitat. Some of the effects were likely bad, such as upsetting food sources and eggs. Some effects might be more positive in the long-term, but that only really matters if the short-term doesn't destroy the fish before things settle back into their favor. When a species already occurs at very low levels in its natural habitat, there's always a risk that any change could be the nudge that tips it over the edge of extinction.
There have been historical attempts to not have all of our fish in one basket, both through the establishment of additional pseudo-wild populations in refugia (none of which were successful) and in aquariums and labs. So far, captive breeding efforts have been hit or miss, though some success is finally being made. Early hurdles seem to have been overcome. If need be, wild habitats could probably be repopulated with captive-bred ones.
The fight to save the Devils Hole pupfish has spanned back almost a century, with considerable controversy over how much effort and expense should be incurred to save a tiny, obscure fish (in the minds of many local people, the answer is "none"). To me, the lesson that the recent events in Death Valley call to mind is that for many endangered species (especially reptiles, amphibians, freshwater fish, and invertebrates), captive breeding is an essential tool in keeping a species safe and securing its future. It's possible that the earthquake could doom the fish of Devils Hole to extinction. If that tragedy were to happen, it would be good to know that we have a backup plan to save the species.
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