Speckled dace (Rhinichthys osculus) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 9

Special Significance of the Species

The speckled dace is a warm water adapted species (Moyle 1976) and reaches the northern limit of its geographic range in south central BC; in Canada it occurs only in the Kettle-Granby river system (Peden and Hughes 1984; Haas 2001; McPhail 2003). Speckled dace in Canada are isolated from other populations downstream by a 30.5 m natural barrier at Cascade Falls. Peden (2002) reported that the morphology of speckled dace in Canada is distinct from populations in the US downstream of Cascade Falls. A complex series of morphological forms (perhaps subspecies) occur in many isolated drainages that lie along the coast from the Olympic Peninsula to California (McPhail 2003). The speckled dace is also of great scientific interest as it is thought to have been one of the parental species in the origin of a third species, the Umatilla dace (R. umatilla), by hybridization between R. osculus and R. falcatus (Haas 2001). Canadian populations of the Umatilla dace are also restricted to a small area in Canada (Haas 2001).

The Kettle River area is a rich and important Aboriginal site. Documentation of the views of the Elders of the Okanagan Nation Alliance regarding issues related to the land, the river and its faunal resources including the speckled dace may be accessed through the Environmental Assessment Office Web Site.

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