Over the years I have fielded a wide variety of research requests and still do. With that in mind, we explore two different inquiries one dealing with the Bly Tunnel and the other at High Rock Springs.
In August 1990, Peter Moyle of the University of California, Davis wrote, “I spent four weeks this summer at the Eagle Lake Field Station teaching a field course in fish biology. One of our class expeditions was to the tunnel, to check out rumors that it contained “blind cave fish.” To our surprise, it did have fish although they were the same species found in Willow Creek. We also found that the chemistry of the water is the same as that of Eagle Lake, so the tunnel is still a chain on the lake.”
In February 2021, Zachary Bess, wrote, “I am a fish biologist with the University of Nevada Reno. I am currently working on a multi-year publication project concerning all of the native fish species in Nevada. Your webpage is the only page on the internet where I have ever seen an actual picture of High Rock Springs!
“To my understanding, High Rock Springs tui chub went extinct in 1989 when tilapia were accidentally introduced to the spring in an attempt to begin a fish farming enterprise. This is mentioned in several agency documents from the 1990s. It was a genetically unique type of tui chub and was actually a candidate for listing with the US Fish and Wildlife Service prior to its extinction. I was interested in going out there to see if the speckled dace are still in there just out of curiosity.
“Eagle Lake is the only place on the eastern side of the Sierra where rainbow trout are found naturally. The Pit River and Lost River have several species that are only found in these water bodies. The fish in High Rock Springs were similarly unique considering that they got in there by means of Lake Lahontan.”