Oregon Chub Makes History as First Fish Taken Off Endangered Species List

The Oregon Chub, a tiny minnow that can only be found in Oregon backwaters, was placed on the endangered species list in 1998. The chub can now come up for air because it was removed from that list yesterday, becoming the first fish to ever be taken off the endangered species list. 

After 21 years listed as an endangered species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared that the Oregon Chub was recovered and it is no longer threatened. However, they still plan to monitor the fish for nine years to ensure its population growth. Paul Henson, the Oregon Director of Fish and Wildlife, made the announcement yesterday at 10 a.m.

The chub was first declared as endangered after it nearly disappeared from Oregon's Willamette Valley. The valley, home to swampy backwaters and beaver ponds, was drained to help mitigate flooding and help create farms and cities over the past 150 years. This resulted in a gradual habitat loss for the Oregon Chub, and those that survived became easy prey for other fish.

Because of the minnow's small size (3 inches long), their habitats were not overly impeded during processes of logging, farming and creating hydroelectric power. Obviously they were interrupted enough to once be considered endangered, but that was before it was known that measures could be implemented to protect them.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department enacted a recovery plan that included "establishing partnerships with landowners to restore key habitats, breeding and transplanting fish to those place and getting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to alter dam releases to more closely resemble natural river flows," according to the Huffington Post.

The extent of their endangerment was noted back in 1992. At that time, only 1,000 Chub remained in eight locations throughout the Willamette Valley. Today, thanks to the preservation measures, there are 180,000 remaining in 80 locations.

The Department has followed suit after this successful example and has placed salmon, Western pond turtles and red-legged frogs into restored habitat projects.