Rare minnows rescued from Texas river amid drought

Yahoo ^ | 9/16/11 | Betsy Blaney - AP

[NormsRevenge]

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Wading through a muddy river bed to reach shallow pools of water, wildlife biologists scooped up hundreds of minnows Friday in one of the first rescues of fish threatened by the state's worst drought in decades.

The scientists collected smalleye shiners and sharpnose shiners from the Brazos River — about 2,300 on Thursday and 800 Friday. The fish, which are found only in the Brazos and nowhere else in the world,..

...

With the water drying up in the drought, the minnows don't have the 100 miles of river they need to reproduce. ..

A team rescued 110 federally threatened Arkansas River shiners and 60 peppered chubs from the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle near the New Mexico border last week and took them to a federal fish hatchery in Oklahoma.

[NormsRevenge]

Whew! got to save them shiners and chubs.. oh yeah.

[NormsRevenge]

baits the hook.. tosses the line in the pond..

[brivette]

you’re baiting me...no, wait.

[FlingWingFlyer]

A minnow is a damn minnow no matter what fancy name you give to them. We’ve got so many minnows in this country that some places put them on pizza to get rid of them.

[OldBullrider]

I guess humans are not “federally threatened” enough to get assistance from the gubbermint.

[KoRn]

Time to go fishin’!

[Repulican Donkey]

ACORN has registered every stinking minnow and is carrying them to the polls in fishbowls! Why not just todd a crappie or bass into the puddles and let nature take its course?

[SouthTexas]

And we are going to have a mini fish fry this weekend!

To cut down on calories ya know.

[Repulican Donkey]

ACORN has registered every stinking minnow and is carrying them to the polls in fishbowls! Why not just toss a crappie or bass into the puddles and let nature take its course?

[steveo]

So these folk who "Breathe" Darwin's natural selection, are more than willing to step in and prevent their religious beliefs from fulfillment.

"Yeah but this is different..."

[JRandomFreeper]

Why are they subverting Gaia's will for minnows? Gaia created the drought, she hates the minnows. /liberal mode off

/johnny

[Red Badger]

I thought liberals believed in Darwin, and the Law of the fittest?.............

[JRandomFreeper]

6 seconds between our replies, both mocking the liberal (lack of) mindset. Great minds, and all of that. ;)

/johnny

[Slings and Arrows]

They were delicious.

[JohnBrowdie]

Gotta wonder how much we’re paying for each minnow that was saved (or created)

[ari-freedom]

where I come from we call them ‘bait’

[bert]

You thought wrong

Scientists and rational people who have studied biology know that natural selection results in survival of species.

Being conservative or liberal is not involved in the issue

[Ron C.]

The same minnows are all over New Mexico, Arizona and other parts of Texas. During droughts of the past, even when all streams 'dry up', come next years rains and full flowing streams, the minnows are right back in huge numbers.

I used to net buckets of minnows (in the hills) to use for bait in lake fishing - and learned that even though the streams appear to be gone, little pools survive in great numbers, along with great numbers of minnows.

Problem is too many 'biologists' like these just have no long-term experience - and no clue about the nature of nature itself.

[moovova]

How many does it take to make a fish sammich?

[jagusafr]

Nah, them’s numbers...