Arizona's Game and Fish Commission decided Wednesday to include the headwater chub in its plan to resume sport fishing at Fossil Creek north of Phoenix on Saturday.
The vote came over objections of the spokesman for six environmental groups and the Yavapai-Apache Nation that had raised concerns that the headwater chub, the dominant species in the creek, is not easily distinguishable from the roundtail chub originally targeted for the fishing season.
Robin Silver, board chairman of the Center for Biological Diversity, said that in addition to the threat of harming the headwater chub by mistake, Fossil Creek isn't ready for sport fishing because it's dealing with population pressures from drinkers and other partiers who authorities agree are "trashing" the creek.
Proponents of the fishing season, led by Commissioner Jennifer Martin, replied that allowing a few hundred or so fishermen onto the creek would not aggravate those problems much because fly fishermen who would catch native fish are more educated and conservation-minded. They are not going to do the kind of damage now occurring there, supporters said.
People are also reading…
Commissioners also cited statements from Game and Fish Department biologists that the two fish are virtually identical genetically and can't be told apart physically even by experts.
Fossil Creek is now considered one of the best, if not the best, native fishery area in the state. More than 15,000 individual chub are believed to exist in the entire creek today. That compares to 227 that were pulled from the creek and survived back in 2004 when biologists poisoned all non-native fish.
Today, five years later, it's still not ready for sport fishing because it's being overrun by people, said the biodiversity center's Silver, who spoke for other environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and the Maricopa Audubon Society, as well as the Yavapai-Apache Nation. Asked by commissioners when he thought the creek could be ready for fishing, he said he couldn't immediately give a specific date.
Silver and several outside fish biologists had pointed out that the commission had a year ago authorized fishing for roundtail chub starting this month, only to learn from biologists during the winter that the headwater chubs far outnumber roundtails and that some stretches of the creek have few or no roundtails. That information prompted the commission to hold an emergency meeting on the fishing issue on Wednesday.
Commissioner Martin, a regular Fossil Creek visitor, said she agrees the creek is being trashed, "but who we are shutting off is not the problem."
Proponents said that having a fishing season at the creek will lead to better protection of the creek and allow the state to use money for law enforcement that would not otherwise be available. Some commissioners said that opponents of sports fish seemed more interested in limiting human presence in the creek than in protecting fish — which the opponents emphatically denied.
Resources limit protection
The roundtail and headwater chubs are considered candidate species for federal protection by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The service has declared both species "warranted but precluded." It considers them worthy of listing but has higher priorities for protection due to limited resources.
Catch-and-release fishing starts Oct. 3 for roundtail chub at Fossil Creek and Oct. 10 for headwater chub, under the actions taken by the State Game and Fish Commission on Wednesday. Fly fishing is required, using barbless hooks.
