7339

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7339
• Author: Valdez, R. A.
• Title: A Review of the Hatchery Program for Threatened and Endangered Fishes of the Colorado River.
• USFW Year: 1985.
• USFW - Doc Type: Logan, Utah.
• Copyright Material: NO

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2-1

2.0 INTRODUCTION

2.1 Purpose Of This Review

Thi s document provi des a review of the background and current status
of the hatchery program for endangered Colorado Ri ver fi shes, as
well as an assessment of existing facilities and capabilities to propagate
the species. This includes the "endangered" Colorado squawfish
(Ptychocheilus lucius), humpback chub (Gila cypha) and bony tail (Gila
elegans), as well as the "candidaten--razorback sucker (XyrauCfi'eil
texanus). The current roles of the participating state and federal
agencies are examined and recommendations are made regarding the hatchery
propagation of the species. This document is based on a review of a small
but growing 1 ibrary deal ing with hatchery propagation of endangered
Colorado River fishes. There is very little literature on the subject in
publication; most of the material is in agency reports and documents. An
effort was made to reference as much existing literature as possible in
Section 6.0, REFERENCES, although not all are cited in this document.

2.2 Hatchery Program Background

The culture of Colorado River endangered fishes began when 8 adult
Colorado squawfish were taken from the Yampa River in July 1973 for
artificial propagation in a hatchery. Seven of the fish survived, and in
July 1974, these fish produced 5000 to 10,000 young squawfish in gravel-
lined concrete tanks at Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery (NFH) in Arizona
(Toney 1974) (Figure 1). Razorback suckers were also brought into hatchery
propagati on in 1974 when 40 fi sh from Lake Mohave were transferred to
Wi 11 ow Beach NFH and subsequently to Page Spri ngs State Fi sh Hatchery
(SFH), Arizona. This was followed by the transfer of 33 humpback chub in
1979 and 1980 from the Little Colorado River and Black Rocks in the Upper
Colorado River, as well as 12 bony tail chub from Lake Mohave in 1979 to
1981 (Hamman 1981a). The majority of production for all endangered
species, to date, has been to meet the demands of research needs, and not
for general reintroduction of the species, except in the case of the
razorback sucker.

The interest in hatchery production of endangered Colorado River fishes
increased with the initiation in 1979 of the Colorado River Fishery Project
(CRFP), a research program designed to assess the habitat needs of the
species in the upper basin. Since the inception of the hatchery
program, many personnel in several facilities have become involved,
al though the program has been coordinated 1 argely by the U.S. Fi sh and
Wildlife Service (FWS).

From the initial production of squawfish at Willow Beach NFH, fish
were sent for research and refinement of rearing techniques to the
Logan Fisheries Experiment Station (FES) of the Utah Division of Wildlife
Resources and to the Hotchkiss NFH in Colorado. This was followed by
addi ti anal transfers of squawfi sh, humpback chub, bony tail and razorback
suckers to the Utah Cooperati ve Fi shery Research Uni t at Utah State
University in Logan and to the University of Idaho in Moscow. Recent