HONG KONG: Every year we hear more and more about new species getting added to the endangered species list. It is often a sad and frightening realization.
And it is very rare that you ever hear about a species being removed from this list, but it does happen.
Today, we are talking about the latter as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that efforts to restore the Oregon Chub Minnow population has been successful and they are now able to remove the fish from the list of endangered species.
When the Oregon chub minnow was added to the Endangered Species list, the year was 1993 and there were only about 1,000 specimens left. Its primary habitat is at the Finley National Wildlife Refuge, which is near Corvallis, Oregon.
This refuge has managed to restore the Oregon chub minnow population to more than 140,000 across 80 locations in the area.
While many species make it on the endangered species list because of things like pollution and climate change, the Oregon chub minnow was first entered in the list because extreme floods had destroyed the local habitat.
Of course, one could argue that extreme flooding could be a result of climate change or pollution (or both).
However, studies show that the decimation of the Oregon Chub minnow was actually more likely due to the introduction of various flood control measures, the building of new dams, and the construction of channels and dikes which diverted water. These changes also increased competition for food among other marine species like the bluegill and the mosquito fish and local bass species.
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