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BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE <br />• The Colorado squawfish, Ptychocheilus lucius, is a piscivorous cyprinid <br />endemic to the Colorado River system. Capable of attaining lengths as great <br />as 180 cm, it is noted as the largest minnow in North America. Before the <br />the turn of the century, the squawfish was very abundant throughout the <br />Colorado River. An Arizona newspaper in 1896 reported that during the <br />annual spawning migration, Phoenix residents were driving to the Salt <br />River in wagons with pitchforks to load up with squawfish (Avery 1974). <br />Other reports tell of ranchers pitchforking squawfish out of irrigation <br />canals and casting them on the bank to be used as fertilizer (Miller 1961). <br />Today, the squawfish is considered extirpated in the Lower Colorado <br />River Basin from Glen Canyon Dam to the Gulf of Mexico. In the Upper Basin <br />it is rare but can still be found in the mainstem and various tributaries <br />of the Green and Colorado Fivers. The decline of the species in general <br />has been attributed to several factors including dewatering, dams and res- <br />ervoirs, alteration of stream flow and stream morphology, changes in water <br />quality, and the introduction of exotic species (Seethaler 1978)• <br />With the passage of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973, the United <br />States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) designated the Colorado squawfish <br />as "endangered". The ESA requires Federal agencies to assure that their <br />actions do not further reduce populations of endangered species, and directs <br />the Secretary of the Interior to develop and implement recovery plans for <br />threatened and endangered species. The Colorado River Fishes Recovery Team <br />was formed of members from several-state and federal resource agencies in <br />1975. The Team develops and implements recovery plans for the endangered <br />fishes of the Colorado River (Miller 1983). Recovery plans developed thus <br />far recommend the following major actions: <br />1. Research into life history and habitat requirements <br />2. Identifying and monitoring habitat and fish populations <br />3. Enforcement of existing laws to protect habitat and fish stocks <br />4. Information and education programs <br />5. Hatchery culture of endangered fishes <br />6. Stocking for reintroduction into former range and to bolster <br />existing stocks <br />7. Preparation of habitat management plans <br />24