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2. To conserve genetic diversity of wild endangered fish stocks <br />through recovery efforts that will protect or restore viable wild <br />stocks by removing or significantly reducing limiting factors that <br />caused population declines. <br />3. To maintain genetic diversity in captive-reared endangered fish <br />broodstocks that is similar to the wild stock used as founders. <br />IV. Endangered Fish Stocks in the Upper Colorado River Basin <br />Although thirteen stocks of endangered fishes are currently identified <br />in the Upper Colorado River Basin (Wydoski 1994 a; Table 1), eleven <br />stocks appear to be based on definite spawning aggregations. A stock <br />is defined as a randomly breeding group of individuals that has <br />spatial, temporal, and behavioral integrity from other randomly <br />breeding groups of that same species. This definition applies to <br />multiple stocks within the same river (e.g., humpback chub stocks in <br />Black Rocks and Westwater Canyons of the Colorado River) or a single <br />stock comprising fish from various rivers (e.g., Yampa River stock of <br />Colorado squawfish that contains fish from the Green, White, and Yampa <br />rivers). <br />While the remaining bonytail in the upper basin is listed as a stock, <br />a definite stock (i.e., breeding group of animals) has not been <br />identified to date. In reality, bonytail in the upper basin should <br />not be considered a stock since they are extremely rare in the upper <br />basin with infrequent captures and long time periods between captures. <br />The humpback chub stocks in Desolation-Gray Canyons of the Green River <br />and Cataract Canyon of the Colorado River are in question because they <br />appear to be hybrids with roundtail chubs based on morphological <br />analyses (McElroy and Douglas 1995) and allozyme analyses (W. Starnes, <br />1995, personal communication). If these two stocks are deleted from <br />the eleven because they are hybrids, nine endangered fish stocks occur <br />in the Upper Basin. <br />The presumptive stock of razorback suckers from the Colorado River arm <br />of Lake Powell should not be considered a stock since actual spawning <br />has not been documented at this location. Razorback sucker larvae <br />have been collected from razorback bar in the Green River near <br />Dinosaur National Monument downstream to the inlet of Lake Powell. <br />The large adult razorbacks (6 in 1980 and 10 in 1981) that were <br />collected in the Colorado River inlet to Lake Powell by Persons and <br />Bulkley (1982) have apparently declined in numbers based on the single <br />adult razorback collected by Valdez (1990) between 1985 and 1988. The <br />Genetics Panel and Recovery Program participants agreed that adult <br />razorback suckers in Lake Powell should be used for broodstock <br />development for the Upper Colorado River Basin and that all razorbacks <br />in Lake Powell may be from one stock (Wydoski 1994b). An attempt to <br />collect wild adult razorback suckers from the San Juan River arm of <br />Lake Powell during the spring of 1995 was unsuccessful (G. Mueller, <br />1995b, personal communication). A single captive-reared razorback <br />2