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majority of these fish were captured in Etter Pond near Debeque, Colorado. <br />These fish were determined from genetic analyses to be progeny from a few <br />adults that gained access to Etter Pond during the high spring flows of 1983 <br />and 1984. <br />In the Upper Colorado and Gunnison rivers, too few adult razorback sucker <br />remain to re-establish or to sustain stable populations in the riverine <br />system. Although limited recruitment may be occurring, it is not sufficient <br />to maintain populations in either river. Only a few juvenile razorback <br />suckers with a substantiated identification have been collected from the upper <br />Colorado River Basin. Smith (1959) reported two razorback suckers (about 38 <br />mm TL) from Glen Canyon during a preimpoundment study. Taba et al. (1965) <br />collected eight juvenile razorback suckers (90-115 mm TL) from a Colorado <br />River backwater downstream from Moab, Utah. In 1991, two juvenile razorback <br />suckers were collected from the lower Green River (Gutermuth et al. 1994). <br />Remaining razorback sucker populations are composed exclusively of old adults <br />in the Upper Colorado and Gunnison rivers. Although the causes are not known, <br />recruitment failure may be due to deterioration of water quality or predation <br />on eggs, larvae, and juvenile razorback suckers by nonnative fish. In <br />addition, the reduction of high spring flows has altered the natural flooding <br />cycle, and some investigators (McAda 1977, Tyus and Karp 1989; Osmundson and <br />Kaeding 1991) attribute lack of recruitment, in part, to the reduced <br />availability of inundated floodplains which historically provided spawning or <br />nursery habitat. <br />Factors affecting survival of razorback sucker in the riverine system must <br />be determined before large-scale augmentation or re-introduction stocking <br />efforts can be expected to be successful. A plan to evaluate stocking to <br />augment or restore razorback sucker in the Upper Colorado River (Burdick.1992) <br />was accepted by Recovery Program participants. That plan proposed stocking <br />small numbers (10-20 adults per experimental stocking site) of hatchery- or <br />pond-reared fish to obtain information on: 1) dispersal, movement, and <br />distribution following stocking; 2) survival of hatchery or pond-reared fish; <br />3) habitat use; 4) potential spawning areas; and 5) growth. <br />That plan was partially implemented. In the spring of 1994, 41 adult <br />razorback sucker were captured from Etter Pond near Debeque, Colorado, and <br />implanted with 4.5-year radio transmitters. Twenty radio-tagged razorback <br />sucker were stocked in historical habitat in the Upper Colorado River between <br />Debeque and Rifle, Colorado, and 21 were stocked in the Gunnison River in the <br />floodplain reach near Delta, Colorado. Preliminary results from this study <br />suggest that post-stocking survival was less than desired. In September 1995, <br />five of those fish were still alive. Two additional fish are contacted <br />intermittently and may still be alive. An additional four adult razorback <br />sucker from Etter Pond were radiotagged in March and held in the refugia ponds <br />at Horsethief State Wildlife Area (SWA) until they were released in the <br />Gunnison River in September 1995. Monitoring of these fish is ongoing. <br />Burdick (1992) addressed the essential elements for an experimental <br />stocking program to obtain fundamental information on the ecology of razorback <br />sucker and to determine the feasibility of stocking as a recovery tool. The <br />plan discussed the rationale and justification for experimental stocking, the <br />genetic risks associated with experimental stocking, justification for <br />2