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<br />INTRODUCTION <br /> <br />Project background- This project implemented nonnative fish management in the <br />Yampa River with a goal to improve the survival of endangered fishes in the Yampa <br />River by reducing the number of adult northern pike Esox lucius in critical habitat. <br />Northern pike was ranked as one of six nonnative piscivorus species of greatest <br />concern by biologists in the Upper Colorado River Basin based on their potential for <br />predation of endangered and other native fishes (Hawkins and Nesler 1991). Northern <br />pike occupy portions of the Yampa and Green rivers identified as critical habitat for <br />endangered Colorado pikeminnow Ptychocheilus lucius, humpback chub Gila cypha, <br />razorback sucker Xyrauchen texanus, and bonytail G. elegans. Northern pike, also <br />pose a predatory and competitive threat to other native species such as roundtail chub <br />G. robusta, bluehead sucker Catostomus discobolus, and flannelmouth sucker C. <br />latipinnis (Martinez 1995). <br /> <br />The Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program (Recovery <br />Program) determined that control of nonnative fishes was necessary for recovery of the <br />endangered fishes in the Upper Basin. The Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW), a <br />Recovery Program participant, developed an Aquatic Wildlife Management Plan for the <br />Yampa River Basin (Vampa Aquatic Plan) which included management of northern pike <br />and other nonnative species (CDOW 1998). The Yampa Aquatic Plan recommended <br />active trapping and translocation of northern pike, smalfmouth bass Micropterus <br />dolomieu, channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus, and white sucker C. commersoni, from <br />