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<br />. 24 Road Hatchery (Colorado): This facility houses 36 tanks that are used to hatch razorback <br />sucker eggs, raise newly hatched offspring from different parent fish, and maintain genetic <br />diversity similar to that of wild populations. When the fish are about 6 months old, they are <br />implanted with identification tags and transferred to Clymer's Pond or other grow-out ponds. <br /> <br />. Clymer's Pond (Colorado): This five-acre pond is used to raise razorback suckers from age 6 <br />months, when they are about 4 inches long, to 1 year, when they have grown to around 8 <br />inches. At this size, mos\ of these fish are stocked in the Gunnison and Colorado rivers. <br /> <br />Other propagation activities: <br /> <br />. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has stocked more than 10,000 bonytail in the <br />Colorado River and 3,000 of these fish in the Green River. Before these stockings, bony tail <br />were nearly extinct in.the upper Colorado River basin. <br /> <br />. In 1998, the Fish and Wildlife Service stocked more than 600 razorback suckers in the <br />Gunnison River and about 500 in the Green River and adjacent wetlands. To date, the total <br />number of razorbacks stocked exceeds 5,000. <br /> <br />Research, monitoring and data management <br /> <br />~~ <br />.;;~.<:> ~.. " <br />.'"~,... )~, <br />~.;A r,,-;:ff:- <br /> <br />~" .--.-.~ <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br />Through research and monitoring, biolog'ists have discovered that the <br />number of Colorado pikeminnow has doubled in the Colorado River since <br />1991. They credit the increases to changes in operation of Flaming Gorge <br />Dam. <br /> <br />. In 1996, biologists discovered young-of-the-year razorback suckers near the confluence of the <br />Green and San Rafael rivers in Utah, suggesting that a new or previously unidentified <br />population of this species exists in the lower Green River. In 1997 and 1998, researchers <br />found both larvae and adult fish in this area. <br /> <br />. In 1995, biologists discovered that Colorado pikeminnow were spawning in the Colorado <br />River's Grand Valley, the first documented spawning there since 1982. Scientists also found <br />the first-ever evidence of pikeminnow spawning in the upper Gunnison River. <br /> <br />. Federal and state biologists completed a comprehensive report summarizing the first seven <br />years of efforts to track endangered, native, and non-native fish populations. Such data is <br />essential to detennine how fish populations are changing over time. Data collected in 1998 <br />indicate an increase in the population of Colorado pikeminnow. <br /> <br />Non-native species, sport-fishing and public information/involvement <br /> <br />(Clockwise from top left) Red shiner, channel catfish, fathead minnow, and <br />northern pike are among the 40-plus species of non-native fish in the <br />upper Colorado River basin. In some areas, non-native fish account for 95 <br />percent of the 'biomass,' or total weight, of the fish in the river. <br /> <br />. Federal and state wildlife agencies in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming have fmalized an <br />agreement on stocking of non-native sport fish. The agreement specifies when non-native fish <br />can be stocked without hanning endangered fish, when case-by-case reviews are required, and <br />when stocking is prohibited altogether. In 1998, the Colorado Division of Wildlife <br />incorporated this agreement into its State stocking regulations. <br /> <br />10 <br /> <br />