i
<br />74
<br />Colorado River basin and thus the major sub-
<br />jects of this report, have been caught be-
<br />tween 1974 and 1988 downstream from Lake
<br />Havasu. All but one were from the extensive
<br />system of artificial waterways that have been
<br />constructed for irrigated agriculture.
<br />In Arizona, canals near Parker produced
<br />two fish (32.3 and 37.1 cm TL) in 1980, two
<br />specimens (each 30 cm) in 1981, and four aver-
<br />aging 35.2 cm in 1986 (Minckley 1983, Ulmer
<br />and Anderson 1985, S. Yess, USFWS, per-
<br />sonal communication). Intake of water for the
<br />Parker area canal system is at Headgate Rock
<br />Dam, about 23 km downstream from Parker
<br />Dam. In California, one specimen (23.4 cm)
<br />was angled from a canal east of Palo Verde in
<br />1983, which obtains its water from Palo Verde
<br />Diversion Dam, 21 km upstream from Blythe.
<br />Farther south, in Imperial Valley, the Coa-
<br />chella Canal (Fig. 1), its laterals, and its equal-
<br />izing reservoirs produced three fish (average
<br />34.8 cm TL) in 1984, and four others averag-
<br />ing 35.5 cm in April 1985 (Ulmer and Ander-
<br />son 1985). Five young (---15 cm TL) were
<br />taken in 1973 and 1974 from the East Highline
<br />canal and adjacent ponds at Niland (St. Amant
<br />et al. 1974), a single fish measuring 22.5 cm
<br />fork length (FL x 1.085 ± 0.021 = 24.4 cm
<br />TL; unpublished data) was taken from the
<br />canal at Niland in 1974 (Ulmer and Anderson
<br />1985), and another ---30.5 cm long was cap-
<br />tured there from a canal-fed pond in Decem-
<br />ber 1985 (E. Milstead, Niland, California,
<br />personal communication). Intake of water for
<br />the Imperial Valley is mostly through the All-
<br />American Canal, which originates near Impe-
<br />rial Dam (Fig. 1). The only small fish from the
<br />mainstem Colorado was a 35.1-cm individual
<br />captured 16 km downstream from Parker, Ari-
<br />zona, between Headgate Rock and Palo Verde
<br />Diversion dams, in summer 1987 (Langhorst
<br />1988). That specimen was two years of age by
<br />otolith examination.
<br />Assuming all these juvenile fish exhibited
<br />growth rates similar to those from Lake Mo-
<br />have, hatchery ponds (McCarthy and Minck-
<br />ley 1987), and a variety of other waters where
<br />reintroduced populations have been studied
<br />(Marsh, in press, Marsh and Minckley, un-
<br />published data), none was more than five
<br />years old. Only the eight fish captured in 1983
<br />or later (three fish in 1984 and five others in
<br />1985) from canals and other waters confluent
<br />with the All-American Canal (Fig. 1) could
<br />GREAT BASIN NATURALIST
<br />Vol. 49, No. 1
<br />have been derived via West Pond from artifi-
<br />cially propagated stocks (see below); all others
<br />were wild fish.
<br />Reintroductions, 1980-88
<br />The first razorback sucker reintroduction
<br />to the lower Colorado River area was in 1980.
<br />It consisted of 17 hatchery-produced adults
<br />(average 32.5 cm TL; 1974 year class, Toney
<br />1974) and 3 Lake Mohave adults (average 56.6
<br />cm TL, ages unknown) into the isolated West
<br />Pond, Imperial County, California (Fig. 1;
<br />W. Loudermilk, CADFG, personal commu-
<br />nication). An unknown number of progeny of
<br />Senator Wash Reservoir fish, artificially prop-
<br />agated and reared by CADFG personnel, also
<br />were stocked in West Pond between 1981 and
<br />1983 (L. Ulmer, CADFG, personal communi-
<br />cation). In November 1983, 457 razorback
<br />sucker juveniles (average 95 mm TL) from
<br />Lake Mohave broodstock also were stocked
<br />into an artificial rearing enclosure constructed
<br />in West Pond by USBR; samples of those fish
<br />averaged 115 mm (N = 5) in December 1983
<br />and 156 mm (N = 5) in January 1984 (Ulmer,
<br />personal communication). West Pond and the
<br />enclosure were not again monitored until
<br />1988, when no razorback suckers were en-
<br />countered.
<br />Because water from West Pond is pumped
<br />into the All-American Canal, these stocked
<br />fish could have contributed to the eight post-
<br />1983 juvenile occurrences downstream in the
<br />confluent Coachella and East Highline canals
<br />or their adjacent ponds and reservoirs. Fur-
<br />thermore, progeny of Senator Wash Reservoir
<br />adults, artificially propagated in spring 1983,
<br />were also reared in aquaria in Blythe, Califor-
<br />nia, and later transferred for grow-out in local
<br />ponds. A total of 57 survivors (average 28.5 cm
<br />TL for 39 measured) was stocked into the
<br />Colorado River mainstem near Blythe in April
<br />1985 (Ulmer, personal communication). A
<br />dozen others (unmeasured) from the same
<br />group were stocked into an isolated pond on
<br />federal lands in February 1986 (Ulmer, per-
<br />sonal communication). These last two stock-
<br />ings could not have contributed to subsequent
<br />captures from the areas of Parker, Arizona,
<br />or Palo Verde, California, because they were
<br />downstream from barriers created by Head-
<br />gate Rock and Palo Verde Diversion dams
<br />(Fig. 1); however, fish could have made their
<br />way downstream to Imperial Valley.
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