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4 <br />CULTURAL STATUS REPORT <br />The success of laboratory studies is wholly dependent on propagation of <br />the Colorado squawfish, and humpback chub. The Willow Beach National <br />Fish Hatchery was chosen to do this work since the Fish and Wildlife <br />Service already has an on-going program there to culture the Colorado <br />squawfish, humpback chub, bonytail chub and razorback suckers. Hatchery <br />personnel sought to spawn the humpback chub and squawfish in May and <br />July 1979 respectively. These efforts were largely unsuccessful. The <br />humpbacks failed to produce eggs while the squawfish produced 30,000 <br />eggs that were poorly fertilized resulting in only 918 juveniles to work <br />with. <br />Several problems were identified at the hatchery by the hatchery manager <br />and Regional personnel that needed to be solved. One was the lack of a <br />specific person to care and be responsible for the endangered species <br />part of the Willow Beach program. The second problem was that insufficient <br />numbers of female squawfish and humpback chub broodfish were available <br />to produce the numbers of test fish needed for the CRFP programs. And <br />third, much of the rearing pond space was taken up by 1,500 subadult <br />squawfish and 828 subadult humpback suckers. <br />Subsequently, a full time endangered species biologist position was <br />created and staffed at Willow Beach. An additional 7 squawfish and 21 <br />humpback chubs were taken from the wild by CRFP field crews and brought <br />to the hatchery. The 1500 hatchery reared squawfish were tagged, removed <br />from the hatchery and stocked in the Colorado River near Moab, Utah on <br />April 10, 1980. The humpback suckers are scheduled to be moved <br />in June. A list of endangered and threatened Colorado River species <br />held at Willow Beach appears in Table 2.