The Harelip Sucker Fish

The Harelip sucker fish was reported to be common in North America during the late 1800’s. It was thought to have been between 12-18 inches long, with thin lips and few taste buds. Its characteristics indicate that it most likely tracked down food through sight. It had a very restricted habitat which was deep pools between shoal areas with extremely clear water in order to sight its prey - snails, limpets, fingernail clams and small crustaceans (Kaufman & Mallory, 1993). The last sighting of the fish was in 1893 and is thought to have become extinct in the early 1900’s. The Harelip Sucker were widespread at a time where humans were trawling on a commercial level, however the fish was not hunted to extinction. Its extinction was an indirect consequence of human actions, however the direct cause of the death was starvation (Miller, Williams, & Williams, 1989).

The decline in Harelip Sucker fish was due to the agricultural practises on land increasing sediment input and in turn, increasing the turbidity currents, lowering the visibility in the area. The Harelip Sucker was a visual feeder which used sight to identify its prey, and therefore the increase in turbidity made it impossible to feed. It is also thought that the increase in pollution and siltation from the agricultural practises may have actually declined the numbers of snails and other food sources, limiting the food sources for the fish (Kaufman & Mallory, 1993).

Although its extinction was a result of agricultural practises, if we view this as a disturbance to the system, the underlying factor of the extinction was starvation. The disturbance to the system meant that its food source became scarce and it no longer had the ability to find its food due to its specific build. This can easily be related to humans. A disturbance to our system could easily impact our food sources. We are fortunate that our food sources are so widely spread that small changes in the weather system don’t have an impact globally. We are able to transport food from region to region what seems almost effortlessly when we can buy what we want from our supermarket shelves. While small events such as hurricanes can effect local scale food sources detrimentally, something like a large volcanic eruption could have a huge effect on the growth of crops. Events like this on a large enough scale could definitely have a detrimental effect to how humans source food. Not to mention the crops being effected, but the ways in which we transport food would be extremely affected also. It is human’s responsibility to build resilience against these events – ensuring that we can locally source food, and source enough to feed our communities.

References

Kaufman, L., & Mallory, K. (1993). The Last Extinction. USA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Miller, R., Williams, J. D., & Williams, J. (1989). Extinctions of North American Fishes During the Last Century. Fisheries, 22-38.