The Clear Lake Hitch (Lavinia exilicaudi chi) known by its Pomo name of "chi", an endemic fish of inestimable cultural importance to dozens of California tribes and tribal communities, is on the brink of being lost forever.

After years of precipitous decline, last year biologists didn’t spot a single juvenile hitch. Given the hitch’s typical life span of 5-7 years, one field biologist compared the hitch's juvenile recruitment failure to a human population going childless for 50 years.

According to prominent ichthyologist Dr. Peter Moyle, "The fate of Clear Lake hitch is tied to restoring spring flows to spawning streams, along with barrier removal and other habitat restoration actions. Such restoration will take continued leadership by the Pomo people in the watershed, cooperation among the numerous agencies with authority in the region, citizen volunteer efforts (such as stream surveys), and lots of funding from state and federal sources."

With tribes leading the way, we have the power to push local, state, and federal agencies to take action. 

1. Locally, and at the State level, we must see more monitoring of creekside water levels and enforcement of California Fish and Game Code 1602 violations – illegal water diversions, streambank alterations and clearing, acts that deprive the hitch of their ancestral waters.
2. At the Federal Level, the US Fish & Wildlife Service must immediately list the hitch as an endangered species.

We encourage you to go beyond signing this petition. Call the US Fish & Wildlife Service at 1-800-344-WILD requesting they list the hitch under the Endangered Species Act before 2023; email the California Fish & Game Commission at fgc@fgc.gov; speak up at town hall, tribal council, and church meetings; and tell your friends, kids, and family members.

Sources:

Peter B. Moyle and Thomas L. Taylor. 2022. Saving Clear Lake’s Endangered Chi. California Water Blog, University of California. (https://californiawaterblog.com/2022/07/17/saving-clear-lakes-endangered-chi/ 

Jeanine Pfeiffer. 2022. The Fight for an Invisible Fish. The Revelator, Center for Biological Diversity. (https://therevelator.org/fight-save-invisible-fish/

Frederick Feyrer. 2019. Observations of the spawning ecology of the imperiled Clear Lake Hitch Lavinia exilicauda chi. California Fish and Game/USFWS. (https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70206985