Group Says Rio Grande Silvery Minnow Population In Decline

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico conservation group says the Rio Grande's silvery minnow population has declined each year since 1994, the year the fish was deemed an endangered species. The organization WildEarth Guardians blames a 2003 policy that allows for the river to run dry below a dam near Isleta Pueblo between June 15 and Oct. 31. During that time, the group says, tens of thousands of young silvery minnow die. The Albuquerque Journal (http://bit.ly/2aLXc7N ) reports that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials this year decided that 1,109 adult fish can die due to natural causes or legal projects, like irrigation, without impacting the species' overall population. That number is based off the prior year's fish population. The agency recently found 46 dead adult silvery minnow and 10,000 dead young ones in the stretch of dry riverbed below the Isleta Diversion Dam.