The transfer of 19 captive Devils Hole pupfish, the world’s rarest fish, into the wild helped stabilize the fish’s population after earthquake-generated waves pushed the species near extinction in 2025. The fish exist in only one location in the world: Devils Hole, a deep cavern and geothermal pool within a detached unit of Death Valley National Park within the boundary of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.
Scientists have been counting the pupfish’s numbers since 1972, and while they have dipped before, a March 2025 dive found only 20 or so of the tiny fish, the lowest number ever recorded. In comparison, from 1972 through the mid-1990s, there were an average of 200 fish counted each spring and 425 counted each fall.
Scientists understood the reason for the sharp drop in 2025. An earthquake had caused six-foot waves to slosh around inside of the cavern like water in a washing machine, sweeping algae and fish eggs off the shallow shelf and into the cavern’s depths.
A team of biologists from the National Park Service, Nevada Department of Wildlife and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service responded to the low count by releasing Devils Hole-derived fish from the Ash Meadows Fish Conservation Facility back into the wild for the first time ever.
"We were fortunate we had a strategic plan that allowed us to act cautiously but swiftly, moving the refuge tank fish to Devils Hole to assist with recovery,” said Kevin Wilson, aquatic ecologist and Devils Hole program manager with Death Valley National Park.
Thanks to the transfer, the pupfish is rebounding, and scientists found 77 fish during the 2026 count, nearly four times the number seen during the 2025 dive. In addition, several hundred remain in captivity at the Ash Meadows Fish Conservation Facility, protecting against the species’ extinction.
The Devils Hole pupfish has been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1967.
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