2 unique rainbow smelt populations make Lake Utopia special in Canada
CBC
In the Magaguadavic watershed in southwestern New Brunswick, there's one lake that is home to a unique pair of rainbow smelt populations.
And it's the only home for them in the world.
That's why classifying Lake Utopia as a key biodiversity area was a "no-brainer" for those looking into the fish.
Key biodiversity areas are identified by the Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada, and areas need to meet criteria either on a national or global scale.
Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne, the society's director for key biodiversity areas, said Lake Utopia clearly fit the criteria. But then came the hard work of finding experts in the particular species, estimates of the population numbers, and information about the biology and threats to the system.
"It's a very data heavy process where we fill in a very long and detailed proposal form," said Raudsepp-Hearne.
"And that has to be then reviewed by additional external experts. And then we … send it out to stakeholders and rights holders, that includes landowners and governments and Indigenous communities.
This process takes about a year, before the work can be submitted to a national committee for acceptance.
Now, Lake Utopia has officially received its designation because of its rainbow smelt.
The small-bodied population of Lake Utopia rainbow smelt is listed as a threatened species in the Species at Risk Act, and co-exist with the large-bodied population Lake Utopia rainbow smelt.
Fish from one population typically don't breed with fish from the other, and they spawn in separate streams that feed Lake Utopia, said Colin Chapman, the Atlantic Canada KBA co-ordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada.
Chapman said these fish are genetically and ecologically isolated from other rainbow smelt, which gives them their own evolutionary lineage.
"That's why there's attention drawn to them because they're effectively separated from other rainbow smelts," he said.
"If we were to lose these, then we lose that branch of evolution within rainbow smelts."
This story is a collaboration between the Investigative Journalism Foundation and CBC Saskatchewan.
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