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Reducing negative impacts of non-native fishes is one of five elements of the <br />Recovery Implementation Program Recovery Action Plan (RIPRAP). Section 2.3 of the. <br />RIPRAP (USFWS 2000) indicates that, through 2003, emphasis be placed on nonnative <br />fish removal and control activities. A project designed to control numbers of <br />centrarchids and other large-bodied introduced fishes from Colorado River backwaters <br />was conducted by USFWS from 1999-2001; this report summarizes results of this effort. <br />Statement of Problem <br />The Colorado River population of Colorado pikeminnow is comparatively small <br />and numbers are currently limited by a low frequency of strong year classes (Osmundson <br />and Burnham 1998). Reproduction may be limited by low egg hatching success during <br />years of unfavorable environmental conditions (McAda and Ryel 1999). Larval and first- <br />year survival may be limited in this and other rivers by high sustained flows during the <br />period of drift (McAda and Rye] 1999), insufficient availability of optimal nursery habitat <br />(Tyus and Haines 1991), slow growth resulting in increased winter mortality (Haines et <br />al. 1998), and by predation in nursery habitats (Osmundson 1987, Ruppert et al. 1993, <br />Nesler 2002). Offspring of stocked razorback sucker and bonytail may experience <br />similar limiting factors. Predation by nonnative fishes is generally considered the greatest <br />impediment to survival of larval razorback sucker in flooded bottomlands (Modde'et al. <br />2001). <br />The most abundant fish predators that likely prey on native fish larvae include <br />nonnative red shiners Cyprinella lutrensis (Rupert et al. 1993), sand shiners Notropis <br />stramineus, and perhaps mosquitofish Gambusia affinis. As larvae grow in nursery <br />habitats they quickly move out of a size range available to these small nonnative <br />minnows and mosquitofish. However, Osmundson (1987) found that young-of-the-year <br />(YOY) and yearling-sized Colorado pikeminnow remain highly susceptible to predation <br />by introduced centrarchids, i.e., largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides, green sunfish <br />Lepomis cyanella and black crappie Pomoxis nigromaculatus. In the upper Colorado <br />River, largemouth bass and green sunfish are the most common, large, non-native, <br />2