Rare Olive-colored Fish in Nevada Nears Key Step Toward Endangered Species Listing

This 2024 photo released by the US Fish and Wildlife Service shows a Fish Lake Valley tui chub. (Nathan Hurner/US Fish and Wildlife Service via AP)
This 2024 photo released by the US Fish and Wildlife Service shows a Fish Lake Valley tui chub. (Nathan Hurner/US Fish and Wildlife Service via AP)
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Rare Olive-colored Fish in Nevada Nears Key Step Toward Endangered Species Listing

This 2024 photo released by the US Fish and Wildlife Service shows a Fish Lake Valley tui chub. (Nathan Hurner/US Fish and Wildlife Service via AP)
This 2024 photo released by the US Fish and Wildlife Service shows a Fish Lake Valley tui chub. (Nathan Hurner/US Fish and Wildlife Service via AP)

US wildlife officials want to extend federal protections to a rare Nevada fish that environmentalists say is “barely clinging to existence" because of rapid groundwater pumping in a remote region experiencing extreme drought conditions.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service's proposal to list the Fish Lake Valley tui chub as an endangered species is expected to publish Wednesday on the Federal Register, kicking off a 60-day public comment period, The Associated Press reported.

It marks the Trump administration's first consideration to list an endangered species during his second term. The pace of listings dropped dramatically during President Donald Trump’s first term.

The Center for Biological Diversity sued in 2023 and secured a settlement last year that forced the government to decide by this month whether to list the fish under the Endangered Species Act, which makes it illegal to import, export, possess, transport or kill those species.

Patrick Donnelly, director of the center’s work across the Great Basin where the tui chub is found, said Nevada can’t afford to lose any more of its native fish species, like the Ash Meadows killifish and Raycraft Ranch springfish that became extinct decades ago.

“The Fish Lake Valley tui chub is barely clinging to existence," he said in a statement. “I’m thrilled these fish are poised to get the life-saving protections they urgently need.”

The olive-colored minnow, which is less than 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) long, used to live in a half dozen springs in Fish Lake Valley in southwestern Nevada, near the

California border. But they are now found in just one spring system between Las Vegas and Reno that the center says is threatened by groundwater pumping mostly used for the production of alfalfa. Other threats include looming lithium mining and geothermal energy projects.

While the tui chub is the “most significant organism” living in that pond, Donnelly said its significance is “much broader than that.” Fish Lake Valley’s wetlands that support all kinds of desert wildlife, including the pronghorn antelope and bighorn sheep, are also dependent on the groundwater there.

“If the water level keeps going down and the Fish Lake Valley tui chub goes extinct, that whole ecosystem is going to crash, because it's the same water that sustains both of them,” Donnelly said. “The Fish Lake Valley tui chub could be considered an indicator of the health of that whole ecosystem.”

In its proposal, the wildlife agency said the designation is warranted because of “the destruction and modification" of the tui chub's habitat “caused by agricultural production or other land management practices," as well as the effects of climate change and competition with invasive species.

At the same time, the Trump administration is seeking to eliminate habitat protections for endangered and threatened species by redefining “harm” in the Endangered Species Act, which has long included altering or destroying the places those species live.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service said in a proposed rule issued last month that habitat modification shouldn't be considered harm because it isn't the same as intentionally targeting a species, which is called “take.”

If adopted, environmentalists say it would lead to the extinction of endangered species because of logging, mining, development and other activities. They argue that the definition of “take” has always included actions that harm species, and that the definition of “harm” has been upheld by the US Supreme Court.



Record Heat in China Strains Power Grid, Stirs Health Fears 

A woman covers herself from the sun as she browses a smartphone on a street during a hot day in Beijing, Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (AP)
A woman covers herself from the sun as she browses a smartphone on a street during a hot day in Beijing, Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (AP)
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Record Heat in China Strains Power Grid, Stirs Health Fears 

A woman covers herself from the sun as she browses a smartphone on a street during a hot day in Beijing, Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (AP)
A woman covers herself from the sun as she browses a smartphone on a street during a hot day in Beijing, Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (AP)

China warned on Wednesday against the risk of power supply disruptions as people struggled to keep cool in record heat baking large swathes of the country, which also spurred warnings to the elderly to guard against heat stroke.

Power supply suffers while demand surges, exceeding 1.5 billion kilowatts for the first time last week, energy officials said, in a third new record for China this month, when its first nationwide alert on heat-related health risks also went out.

"High-temperature weather will ... have an impact on power generation and supply," weather official Chen Hui told a press conference on Wednesday, adding that it would hit hydropower output and reduce the efficiency of photovoltaic generation.

Authorities will send alerts to notify electricity suppliers if tactics such as peak-shaving and cross-regional dispatching of power are called for, added Chen, an official of the China Meteorological Administration.

Since mid-March, the number of days when temperatures hit 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) or more is the highest on record, said Jia Xiaolong, deputy director of the National Climate Center.

Authorities asked the elderly to stay indoors unless necessary, while urging outdoor workers to scale down activity on such "sauna days".

Temperatures have hit new highs since mid-March in the central provinces of Henan and Hubei, Shandong in the east, Sichuan in the southwest, and northwestern Shaanxi and Xinjiang, pushing the national average to the second highest on record.

During the last two weeks, 152 national weather observatories tracked temperatures above 40 degrees C (104 F) with one in Xinjiang reaching 48.7 degrees C (119.7 F), Jia said.

He did not rule out the chance of more record-breaking heat, saying August could prove as warm as, or even hotter than, in recent years.