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<br />and Horsethief State Wildlife Area. Numbers of progeny from these brood stock family lots <br />that are in excess of those needed for production of the brood stock have already been <br />designated as suitable for stocking in the Colorado and Gunnison rivers (Czapla 1997). <br />Burdick et al. (1995) have already conducted a risk assessment associated with stocking and <br />the stocking plan has already been approved for implementation by the Recovery Program <br />Biology Committee. <br /> <br />The modification proposed by this plan with respect to Burdick et al. (1995) are the <br />stocking numbers proposed and stocking in an additional reach of the Colorado River <br />(palisade to Stateline). A target biomass objective for razorback sucker of 5 % of the total <br />fish community biomass in each of the river reaches designated was arbitrarily selected. The <br />numbers of razorback sucker required to equal this biomass was estimated to be 475 <br />fish/mile using average weight (550 gm) and length (350 mm) estimates for adult fish at <br />maturity (Age 5). For each river reach, achievement of stocking objective would result in an <br />adult population of 23,900 adult fish from ages 5-7, and 71,700 fish distributed over 150 <br />river miles of three reaches in the Upper Colorado River subbasin. Interim management <br />objectives (!MO) for razorback sucker (Lentsch et al. 1998) indicate at least 2,660 adult fish <br />are necessary as an effective population size to maintain long tenn genetic diversity. Using a <br />demographic model developed by Crowl and Bouwes (1998), simulation results show a mean <br />population or subpopulation size of 5,300 razorback sucker <.:1:800 fish) are necessary to be <br />95 % confident the population will be maintained over a 100 year period. If one considers <br />each of the three target river reaches designated in this plan as supporting a subpopulation, <br />then the IMO objective for this subbasin would be up to 18,300 adult razorback sucker. The <br />IMO population objective represents slightly greater than one percent of the fish community <br />biomass estimated in Anderson (1997). <br /> <br />Stocking of razorback sucker will interject an additional species into the existing fish <br />community, and has the potential to induce changes in the relative abundance and biomass of <br />these species' populations in each of the targeted reaches. The stocking numbers proposed <br />are influenced by the following assumptions: <br /> <br />1) the upper Colorado River reach (Rifle to Debeque) from which biomass "estimates in <br />Anderson (1997) were made was at carrying capacity. <br /> <br />2) the Upper Colorado River reach and the Gunnison River reach are similar with <br />respect to this carrying capacity based on similar geohydrology and predominating <br />native fish communities based on obsetved native/nonnative species relative <br />abundance as described in Burdick (1995) and Anderson (1997). This similarity is <br />also assumed to extend to the Palisade-Stateline reach of the Colorado River. <br /> <br />3) Adult riverine habitat is not limiting in the upper Colorado River reach for razorback <br />sucker, and likely not limiting in the other two reaches. <br /> <br />7 <br />