English: Photo caption: Golden Gate NRA aquatic ecologist Darren Fong prepares to release tidewater gobies.

Accompanying story: In late October, state and federal officials released more than 170 endangered tidewater gobies in Tomales Bay State Park, adjacent to Point Reyes National Seashore, hoping to establish a thriving population of this highly vulnerable species. The goal of this effort is to restore populations in adjacent areas to provide some additional insurance they will survive in the future.

Prior to the release, 175 tidewater gobies were collected ten miles away at the Giacomini Wetlands, a 560-acre wetlands restoration site completed by the Point Reyes National Seashore in October 2008, which has a healthy tidewater goby population. NPS biologists from Point Reyes and Golden Gate NRA gathered both males and females, including a few pregnant females - distinctive in their dark body and fins compared with the more transparent males.

The fish were taken to their future home in buckets which were lowered into the edge of the pond. Small holes were punched into the buckets, allowing the water to slowly mix and the gobies to adjust over the course of three days until their release.

They were then gently discharged into their new homes in a lagoon just inshore from Indian Beach at Tomales Bay State Park. Agency officials are confident that the gobies, which breed year round, will successfully inhabit their new home and find suitable mating grounds. To initiate breeding, males use their mouths to dig burrows in the sand. Then, in behavior unique to tidewater gobies, the females spar and fight over the nests. Those who succeed lay roughly 500 eggs, which the males devotedly protect until the embryos hatch about ten days later.

The tidewater goby (Eucyclogobius newberryi) live exclusively in brackish waters off coastal California and are faced with imminent extinction due to habitat loss. Widespread coastal development caused tidewater goby populations to plummet, landing them a spot on the federal endangered species list in 1994. When the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service crafted a recovery plan in 2006, the gobies had already disappeared from as much as 75 percent of their original habitat.

These little fish are rarely longer than two inches in length, with relatively large pectoral fins, big eyes and a pug mouth. They live in shallow shoreline lagoons and estuaries, which are often enclosed, limiting their ability to move to new habitats. When their pond or lagoon is drained or damaged for commercial development, they are trapped and perish. Establishing new populations in protected areas is a primary goal of the Recovery Plan and led to Thursday’s release efforts.

Coastal development is sure to continue, but this small lagoon and its new population of tidewater gobies should find safety within Tomales Bay. This collaborative restoration effort between the National Park Service, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and California Department of Parks and Recreation is a key step forward in the recovery of this protected species.

Contact Information

Name: Cassandra Brooks, Point Reyes, NS, and Darren Fong, Golden Gate NRA