PROVO, Utah — A fish only found in Utah Lake, the June Sucker has proved its grit over millennia. But its future has been in peril for several decades.
“It’s been here for thousands and thousands of years,” said Keith Lawrence, a Native Aquatic Project Leader with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. “It was very important to the early settlers as a food source, but through over-exploitation and water quality impacts and habitat impacts both natural such as during the dust bowl era the June sucker has languished.”
From millions in the 1800s to fewer than a thousand by the 1980s, the June Sucker was federally recognized as an endangered species by 1986. This sounded the alarm to commence a broad effort to prevent the oblivion of this native Utah fish.
According to Lawrence, who is part of the June Sucker Recovery Implementation Program (JSRIP), a collection of state, federal and local government agencies, along with outdoor and environmental interest groups trying to save the fish, changes in the habitats of the June Sucker have negatively affected and limited the spawning and nursery areas in Utah Lake’s tributaries.
These safe spaces to spawn are vital to the early life stages of the June Sucker.
But why does this matter?
The June Sucker is an indicator species. Scientists monitor the June Sucker to understand the health of Utah Lake’s ecosystem and its connecting tributaries.
“There’s importance to the ecosystems that the fishes rely on. There's importance to the birds, you know, that use this year-round as a habitat or just as stopovers during migrations.
"Their survival is not only important for aquatic ecosystems but also for people. For that matter, just to a quality of life that exists for people to just enjoy these kinds of places”
Following June Sucker’s listing on the endangered species list, wild June Sucker adults were captured and artificially spawned and bred in hatcheries to increase its population. The JSRIP recovery efforts have also included the Provo River Delta Restoration Projectwhich focuses on restoring and improving the natural stream functions of Utah Lake’s tributaries for recreation and to improve natural spawning areas for the June Sucker.
Just one of only five fish species to be down listed from endangered to threatened in the United States, the June Sucker, has been slowly making its comeback.
“There's somewhere between probably 30 to 50,000 fish that are coming up into the Provo River itself,” Lawrence said.
“I think it's a point of pride that a community should have, that they have an organism so unique and getting it to a point where it recovers is really awesome,” said Andrew Nagy, June Sucker Biologist for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
But their resurgence doesn’t go without remembering their past.
“What's been missing over the years as human encroachment on these river systems has occurred is that the rivers have become more channelized, Lawrence said.
“There's less diversity and quality of habitat than there used to be, particularly with regard to raising these fish up eventually into adult fish.”
To ensure the lifespan of young June Sucker’s scientists have been monitoring fish at the newly formed Provo River Delta, a nearly 260 acre restoration project of critical habitat where the Provo River meets Utah Lake.
“So the delta is really kind of a transitional area between the spawning areas upstream and the swifter parts of the river and the lake where eventually the June suckers will spend most of their lives, Lawrence said.
“That kind of protected habitat is what's necessary if the fish are going to avoid predation from any of a number of non native predators that exist in the system now.”
But how do scientists know if the Fish are using this new habitat?
"We try and get our hands on as many fish as possible and put PIT tags, (Passive Integrated Transponders),” Lawrence said. “We monitor how many of them come up into the rivers, particularly the Provo river, because this is the main spawning tributary.”
To track tagged fishes, DWR places antennas along the bottom of important tributaries. These include the Provo River, Hobble Creek, and the Spanish Fork River. When a fish with an implanted PIT tag swims over the antennas, the antennas detect it and store the information on a computer.
The information can be used to estimate spawning population size, survival probability, and annual rate of population change.
“Hopefully we can get this fish off of the endangered species list in a relatively short period of time,” Lawrence said. “It’s been quite a journey.”
On Dec. 31, 2020 the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the June Sucker was moved from the “endangered” category to the lower “threatened” status.
Free Fishing Day will be held on June 10, 2023. If you accidentally catch a June Sucker you must release it immediately. Penalties and fines will be enforced otherwise.
