The fluvial Arctic grayling hasn’t had an easy time
of it during the last 10,000 years. Left stranded in the rivers of
the Northern Rockies after the last glaciers receded, it remains
the only native grayling population in the lower 48 states. But the
grayling almost disappeared in Montana over the last 100 years.
It’s been battered by decreased stream flows, warming waters,
competition from non-native trout and fishing pressures; now, the
grayling is found in only 4 percent of its Montana native
range.
The fish, which spend their entire life in
rivers, become voracious feeders in summer to maintain their
unusual Arctic metabolism. The grayling munches insects about once
every three minutes, which helps explain why the fish is known
among anglers as gullible. Distinctive with its large, turquoise
dorsal fin, the grayling has become a fixture in Montana
life.
“The grayling is part of our native
inheritance,” says Pat Munday of the Big Hole River Foundation, a
group trying to protect the watershed with the only remaining
grayling population. “It’s a symbol of the wildness and
pristineness of an area.”
Now, the Montana
Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks hopes to restore the Arctic
grayling to five state rivers, a move that might head off the
strict recovery rules of the Federal Endangered Species
Act.
“We have what we believe are the best spots
for reintroduction,” says the agency’s grayling biologist, Jim
Magee. “We have looked today at the streams where grayling used to
be and have found that there aren’t too many places left that will
give the grayling a chance.”
*Juniper
Davis
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A peculiar fish gets a second chance.
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