Albuquerque, NM (KKOB) –New Mexico is now home to a variety of “Flying Fish”. 78 GilaTrout were prepared for take-off recently on a helicopter ride that resued them from Iron Creek in the Gila Wilderness. Their life was threatened as a result of the Sacaton Fore which burned nearly 10 thousand acres of the Wilderness. The Gila trout lives nowhere else in the world but the Gila Wilderness, and was one of the first fish species to ever be protected under the Endangered Species Act. Dan Trujillo, a Gila trout biologist with the New Mexico Department of Wildlife said “Iron Creek holds what we call a relic lineage and those are the remnants of a population that used to be much larger” Adding, the trout is a part of New Mexico’s natural landscape. The rescued group will now breed at the Mora National Fish Hatchery, where biologists hope their offspring will eventually be released back into the wild.
