Utah's native fish

The cutthroat trout has some very close ties with such odd characters as the mottled sculpin, speckled dace, woundfin and desert sucker.

It is not nearly as close as people might think to popular fish like rainbow, largemouth bass, yellow perch, walleye or kokanee salmon. That's because the cutthroat is a Utah native, as is the sculpin, dace, woundfin and sucker. They've been neighbors for centuries, even millenniums.

Fish like rainbow, bass, perch and salmon are transplants, non-native species brought into Utah for either food or sport.

Utah does, in fact, have a fairly respectable list of native fish but not nearly as long as those of the Eastern states, where there are more lakes and longer, rainier seasons.

Of the 30 fish on Utah's list, only three — all cutthroat — are considered popular game fish. Three others — all whitefish — are fish anglers might keep, and one — the Bonneville cisco — is more popular as a bait than a meal.

As for the rest of the native fish, some people may have heard about some but have likely never seen one, nor are they likely to ever see one.

"Here in the West," said Matthew Andersen, native aquatic species program coordinator with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, "we have a relatively small number of native fish, mainly because we have less water so we have a less complex fish community."

The natives fall into three areas — cutthroat trout, minnows and suckers. They range in size from fish the size of a man's thumb to the Colorado pike minnow, an endangered fish that can get up to 6 feet in length.

The movement to introduce nongame fish followed closely on the heels of early settlers.

Carp, for example, were brought into Utah to replace the June sucker in Utah Lake, which were nearly wiped out by early pioneers who used the fish as a primary food source.

"Officials came in and said, 'Oh, you need carp. They're great. They grow large and are a fantastic food source.' So, they introduced this fish from China all over the West," Andersen said.

The species is harmful not only because it eats the native fish and their eggs, but carp "beat the heck out of the habitat," Andersen said. "Their habit of grubbing in the substrate for food disrupts vegetation. They've had a lot to do with the (poor) condition of Utah Lake."