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s BAIT FISH REGULATORY CHANGES IN ARIZONA Mr. Joe Janisch (AZ) provided the Council a brief overview of the current situation with respect to live bait fish in Arizona. Arizona has many licensed commercial fish rearing facilities which sell minnows for bait throughout the Colorado Basin and other points in the United States. It would be extremely unlikely that, based on this industry, the legislature or commission would recommend doing away with live bait in Arizona. Also, the Arizona Department has been dealing with conflicts associated with interstate transport of different bait species into Arizona. The Arizona bait industry and other state wildlife agencies have been concerned with Arizona exports because of pathogens, diseases, mixed species, etc. Arizona is now considering promoting a single fish species as the only bait fish. Ideally, such a fish would be a native species found throughout Arizona and perhaps further. It would need to be functional, easily reared, transportable and, ideally, even increase the ease of rearing and profitability for the industry. In the latest discussions, two fish have been rated the highest priority. Probably the most attention is being paid to the Sonoran sucker, which is native throughout Arizona, has high fecundity, easy to raise, and the largest is about 2 or 3 pounds. Since it is ubiquitous, it will probably never be a candidate for native species listing. The fish minnow industry has agreed that the future probably will be for certain approved species and they are generally in agreement with this particular fish. In this past year, the Arizona Department has taken eggs and is currently engaged in experimental rearing to determine rearing methods and ease of providing a cultured product. The second sucker in consideration would be a different species of the same genus, the desert sucker. The group discussed ramifications at some length. Nevada expressed concern about the Sonoran sucker, which is not found in Nevada, but that the desert sucker is native to Nevada and would be considerably the best choice of the two for bait fish introduction. A considerable amount of the bait fish used in Nevada comes from Arizona. There was also concern about the sucker as an effective bait species. Arizona has not considered any testing in this regard, relying on information from the midwest which shows that for bass fishing, suckers are the preferred bait species. Arizona will be testing the hardiness of the Sonoran sucker in low oxygen environments such as hauling, in buckets, etc. to help determine the choice of bait species. In regard to several questions about the sucker's effect on the environment, especially changed environments, Mr. Janisch reported that in the central part of Arizona there are 20