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123 <br />Woundfin propagation has not been very successful at Dexter NFH <br />when compared to the other species being reared there. While spawning <br />has taken place and several thousand fish produced, these numbers are <br />insufficient to restock the selected }~abitats. Ef forts will continue <br />at Dexter to produce sufficient numbers of woundfin for restocking, <br />but next spring wild fish will be moved from the Virgin River into <br />at least three of the selected streams. Stocking of the Gila and <br />San Francisco rivers will be delayed at the request of New 1`lexico <br />Department of Game and Fish until the impact on two other native minnows, <br />the spikedace (Meda fulgida) and toach minnow (Tiaroga cobitis) can be <br />more fully evaluated. Although woundfin were collected together with <br />Meda and Tiaroga in the Salt River at Tempe (Hinckley and Deacon 1968; <br />Hinckley 1973), these two tatter species are suffering the same declines <br />experienced by other southwestern fish, and have recently been <br />proposed as threatened species under the Act. Stocking of woundfin in <br />the Verde River below a population of Meda will occur as scheduled. <br />Summary <br />As an informational sidelight to the reintroduction efforts in the <br />lower basin, 3,151,708 young razorback suckers were stocked in the <br />Salt, Verde and Gila rivers in 1985. This brings the total number <br />of razorback suckers stocked in the first five years of this effort to <br />more than 9,400,000. The majority of the suckers stocked have been <br />fry, but each year 100,000 or more fingerling fish (4-8 inches) are also <br />stocked. Two recaptures Fran this effort were made in 1985; the first <br />by a fisherman in the upper Verde River who caught a razorback sucker on <br />hook and line a~ld ret»rned it to the water, and the second by Fish and <br />Wildlife Service employee Bill Kepner, who captured a specimen in a <br />gravel pit in the Salt River below P}ioenix. A concerted of fort by Service <br />and State employees during spring, 1985, failed to locate any razorback <br />suckers in the Salt, Verde or Gila rivers. Stocking of razorback suckers <br />will continue through 1990 before success is determined, and depending <br />upon that ou[cane, the species will be reevaluated for listing under the <br />Act. The razorback sucker reintroduction effort initiated interest in <br />additional stockings of native fish. To date the following species <br />have been reintroduced into the wild from stocks at Dexter NFH: Colorado <br />squawfish, razorback sucker, Gila topminnow, bonytail chub (Gila elegans), <br />Yaqui chub (Gila purpurea), Rig Bend gambusia and desert pupfish <br />(~prinodon macularius). <br />Additional reintroductions of other species are planned, but it <br />rtnist be remembered that these efforts are only one phase of recovery. <br />Long-teen survival of southwestern native fishes depends primarily upon <br />the protection of existing habitats; reintroduction programs add to <br />the recovery effort but cannot assure its success. <br />