9660

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9660
• Author: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
• Title: Colorado Squawfish Revised Recovery Plan - Draft.
• USFW Year: 1990.
• USFW - Doc Type: Denver, CO.
• Copyright Material: NO

DRAFT
Cultural. Economic. and Biological Importance
Historically, the Colorado squawfish was an important source of food for human
residents. American Indians caught them along the lower Colorado River and
its larger tributaries in Arizona (Miller 1955, 1,961; Minckley 1965,_1973;
Minckley and Alger 1968; Rostlund 1952). The species was reported from the
Upper Basin as early as 1825,-when Colonel W.H. Ashley's party subsisted on
fish caught by angling in the Green River (Morgan 1964). Dellenbaugh (1908)
also reported the capture of Colorado squawfish during the 1871 Powell
expedition. Jordan (1891) identified Colorado squawfish as the largest and
best food fish of the lower Colorado River. Commercial anglers operated on
the lower Salt River from the time of settlement until about 1910,-and within
the Salt River Canyon until the 1930's and perhaps longer (Chamberlain 1904:
Minckley 1965). The species was widely sought by anglers prior to its
precipitous decline in the period 1930-50 in the Gila River at Dome
(Richardson in Miller 1961) and Safford (chamberlain 1904), Salt River Canyo`~
(Dammann in Minckley 1965), and Roosevelt Lake (Frazier in Miller 1961). ~::~~
Individuals weighing 2.7 to 15.4 kg (6 to 34 pounds) were commonly caught
along the Lower Colorado River prior to 1949 (Moffett 1942,, 1943; Wallis
1951). Minckley (1973) stated, "It is notable that the name salmon,' in some
context or alone, was used exclusively for Ptvchocheilus, and that no other
names for the species were known to-the [12] persons interviewed." .His.
~~ ~~
information was collected through interviews with old-timers along the Gila
and lower Colorado rivers; the common name presumably was derived from the
size, appearance, and palatibility of the species, as well as its migratory
tendency in the spring. Residents of Vernal, Utah, remarked about the former
abundance of the fish, which reached sizes of 23.6 kg (52 pounds.), in the
Green River (Vanicek 1961). Seethaler (1978) summarized interviews with local
people who reported specimens of up to 13.6 kg (30 pounds) from the upper
Green River in Colorado and Wyoming. Seethaler (1978) included a report of a
Colorado squawfish 1.7-1.8 m (5-1/2 to 6 feet) in length caught in _1911 just:
below the confluence of the Green and Yampa rivers in Dinosaur National
Monument, and included a photograph of a 11.3 kg (25 pound) adult taken in
Dinosaur National Monument in 1928.
Miller-(1961), Wick et al. (1981), and others reported that Colorado squawfish
may have sportfishing potential. The Colorado squawfish has the potential to
attain a ]arge size, takes artificial lures readily, and has been reported as
"good-eating" in historic accounts. The State of Arizona and the Service are
formulating plans to reintroduce and manage Colorado squawfish for
sportfishing in the lower Colorado River. A fishery management plan for
Kenney Reservoir on the White River in Colorado similarly includes development
of an experimental sport fishery for Colorado squawfish (Martinez 1986b).
Approximately 17,000 Colorado squawfish fingerlings were stocked into Kenney
Reservoir in April of 1988, about 33,000 in 1989, and about 36,Ofl0 in 1990 as
part of a 3-year experimental. program to establish a sport fishery. The
success of this stocking program will be evaluated through 1992. No further
stockings are planned, pending completion of the evaluation.
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