Documenting Native Desert Fish Conservation in Arizona

Authors: Wesley Franklin

Year: 2024

Abstract

Scientists and conservationists are achieving success in researching & protecting species with greater efficiency and less resources expended due to the advances in fisheries technology such as PIT scanning, environmental DNA, and acoustic telemetry. Along with breakthroughs in fisheries technology, we have seen an advance in methods to document what we are experiencing while collecting data in the field. Videography is a medium that conveys data and stories in a way that numbers and figures cannot and to groups that scientific papers do not reach. In a world where people are so encapsulated by videos on screens and at a time when we are rushing to halt extinction and extirpation of desert fish species in the American Southwest, we should be using the best resources available to us to present these fish and their stories to as many people as possible. It is vital that while we are progressing in conservation, we document the successes of fishes that have overcome years, decades, even centuries of declining populations due to habitat fragmentation, predation by exotic, invasive predators, and dewatering. These powerful stories need to reach people outside the very small realm of fish biologists and academics. Ordinary people need to see what we see if we ever want them to care for these fish and their ecosystems as we do. Through the funding of the Western Division American Fisheries Society (WDAFS), Marsh & Associates (M&A) has secured videography equipment to document native fish assemblages in Arizona. This video displays and describes Roundtail Chub Gila Robusta from several streams in its native range where native fish assemblages are still intact.