7890

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7890
• Author: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
• Title: Region 6, Fish and Wildlife Service Guidelines Directing Captive Propagation Of Listed And Candidate Fish.
• USFW Year: 1996.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

General Guidelines for Reintroduction of Captive-Reared Fish. Suitable habitat
must be available to increase the likelihood of success. The reasons for holding,
rearing, and stocking listed and candidate fishes are summarized in Box 5.
Criteria for holding, rearing, or stocking captive-reared fish, and action
required are provided in Box 6. General guidelines for preparing reintroduction
plans are summarized in Box 7.
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Box 5. Reasons for holding, rearing, or stocking listed and candidate
fish.
1. Place fish in refuges to protect genetic diversity when the stock
may become extinct in the near future from population declines or
catastrophic events.
2. Culture fish for experimental stocking to obtain biological,
ecological, or environmental information from field experiments
that are essential to the recovery effort.
3. Produce fish for augmentation stocking to enhance depleted
stocks.
4. Produce fish for restoration stocking of extirpated populations or
stocks.
D.
rruyrdms. ine mayor oDjective of a captive propagation program is to
produce offspring that have genetic and behavioral characteristics
similar to those of the founding population. The purposes of a captive
propagation program are to facilitate restoration and recovery by
maintaining genetic refugia for fish species or stocks might other wise
become extinct. Maintaining existing natural genetic diversity in
captive populations preserves future options for effective management and
recovery of the taxon by fish and wildlife managers (Ralls and Ballou
1992; Thomas 1990).
Natural genetic diversity within a population is associated with its
evolutionary history and is important for adaptation, long-term survival,
and maximum productivity in the wild. Protecting genetic diversity
within a hatchery stock minimizes the effects of artificial selection,
inbreeding, and genetic drift which frequently occurs in hatchery
programs (Allendorf 1993). The concept of "maximally protecting genetic
diversity" within a hatchery stock assumes that a sufficient number of
randomly sampled individuals from the appropriate donor stock were used.
Broodstock will then reflect the genetic characteristics of the donor
stock.
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