Oregon chub becomes 1st fish taken off endangered list

A tiny minnow that lives only in Oregon backwaters is the first fish ever taken off U.S. Endangered Species Act protection because it is no longer threatened with extinction. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was to announce Tuesday that the Oregon chub was recovered, 21 years after it went on the endangered species list. The agency will monitor the fish for nine years to make sure populations continue to grow. "We're not saying it won't need management," said Paul Henson, Oregon director of Fish and Wildlife. "But they can leave the hospital and get out to be an outpatient." Henson was to make the announcement at 10 a.m. Tuesday at a 92-acre property along the McKenzie River outside Springfield owned by the McKenzie River Trust that combines a working farm with habitat protection and restoration.  Unlike Pacific salmon, the Oregon chub was relatively easy to save because it inhabits small places and does not get in the way of huge economic forces, such as logging, hydroelectric power and farming, said Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Brian Bangs, who since 2005 has supervised recovery efforts...more

Can you imagine what life would be like without this tiny minnow?  Its terrible to contemplate. We are so lucky it was "relatively easy to save" and thus took the government only 21 years to save.  Let's all wish the chub well and hope it survives nine more years of  monitoring.  Besides, I had no idea the NSA had an interest in fish.