Northern California earthquake threatens pupfish habitat in remote Death Valley

Devils Hole Pupfish/USFWS

On Thursday morning, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the ocean floor about 60 miles off the far coast of Northern California. Just a few minutes later, the energy from the quake traveled more than 500 miles southeast and shook a pool called Devils Hole in Death Valley National Park, the only habitat of the endangered Devils Hole Pupfish. The pool's turbulent waves reached two feet high, disturbing Devils Hole's stable organic matter, which is usually glass panels, protected from the wind.

This is likely to be a problem for your pup fish.

Devils Hole is hundreds of feet deep, but pupfish live only in the upper reaches of the pool, generally no deeper than 80 feet. There are shelves at this depth that collect the organic matter that the fish eat and where they lay their eggs during spawning.

It appears that the strong waves washed away the shelves of organic matter and sent them to the bottom of the pond where the fish could not reach them. Many of their eggs were likely washed away as well.

“In the short term, this is bad for the pupfish,” said Dr. Kevin Wilson, a biologist with the National Park Service. “A lot of the little fish's food has sunk deep into the cave, and it's probably too deep for the fish to get to. There were probably little fish eggs that were destroyed on the shelf. But, in the long run, this kind of reset is beneficial.” To pup fish you have cleaned up any decaying organic matter that could be causing pockets of low oxygen.

Screenshot of video of waves at Devils Hole in 2022/NPS, Amber Chodwin

Earthquake waves from as far away as Indonesia and Japan can stir up Devil's Hole's waters. It is a natural seismometer.

The Devils Hole pupfish is an unusual little animal.

They are less than an inch long and have evolved to live in a strange and inhospitable place. The water at Devils Hole is hot, about 90 degrees year round. It is also low in oxygen. So the little fish has a trick. When oxygen levels drop too low, fish stop breathing and continue to go about their business for several hours at a time.

In 2013, there were only 35 walleyes left in Devils Hole. But diligent conservation efforts, as well as raising pupfish at a nearby aquarium used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to boost juvenile fish populations when necessary, have brought the fish numbers to 263 this year. year.

They have survived epileptic seizures before (in fact, in 2022), and are likely to survive more. They're little fighters, these fish.

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