New species of tiny endangered fish found only at Camp Pendleton

 Scientists say a tiny endangered fish found in lagoons and streams along the California coast belongs to two separate species.

The tidewater goby, a 2-inch translucent fish, survives in relatively isolated populations from Del Norte County down to San Diego. The fish spend most of their lives in the same puddles, rarely traveling far from where they spawned.

The southernmost groups, cut off from the north by the rocky headlands of Palos Verdes, show the distinctive genetic and physical characteristics of a new species, which is described by scientists from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and UCLA in a paper published Wednesday in PLOS One.

The southern tidewater goby lives in only a few spots at Camp Pendleton, making the designation as its own species a critical one for its conservation, said David Jacobs, a biologist and geologist at UCLA who helped identify the species with the museum’s Camm Swift.read more

“This [new] species is very, very highly endangered,” Jacobs said. “It can go away in the blink of an eye.”