Nooksack dace

Nooksack Dace
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Cypriniformes
Family:	Cyprinidae
Genus:	Rhinichthys
Species:	R. cataractae(?) ssp.
Binomial name
Rhinichthys cataractae (?) (Valenciennes, 1842)

The Nooksack dace is a small cyprinid fish occurring in streams in southern British Columbia and western Washington state. It has not yet been formally described taxonomically. It is considered a genetically distinct subspecies of longnose dace (Rhinichthys cataractae), but may be a distinct species. Its distribution in Canada is limited to four locations: three in the Nooksack basin, and one in the Fraser basin. This narrow distribution in habitats undergoing degradation due to urbanization, agriculture and other cases has led to the fish being declared endangered under Canada's Species at Risk Act. However, the Nooksack dace is much more widely distributed in Washington, occurring in eastern Puget Sound drainages from the Nooksack south to the Puyallup, and in Pacific coastal drainages from the Quillayute south to the Willapa.

References

• Wydoski, Richard S.; Whitney, Richard R. (2003). Inland Fishes of Washington (2nd ed.). University of Washington Press. ISBN 9780295983387. 

External links

• Aquatic Species at Risk - Nooksack Dace | Fisheries and Oceans Canada
• Paper on Nooksack dace and Salish sucker
• Updated COSEWIC status report on Nooksack dace