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. . Rocky Mountain News Fri., May 11,1990 14 . . 'TriSlilish' stymie project again Gary Gerhardt Nature Watch Two endan- gered Colorado River fish are rearing their ugly heads again. This time the squawfish and humpbacked chub, formidable foes of past west- ern water pro- jects, are hanging up the proposed Animas-La Plata project iu sout\!- western Colora- do. The project would divert water from the Animas and La Plata rivers, both tributaries of the San I Juan River, iato two reservoirs, three pumping stations and 157 i . miles of pipes and canals where !t I . eventually would be used foragn- , cultural purposes. " The problem is, SQuawfish and humpbacked chub - which were first spotted in the San Juan in 1987 - need Warm water to spawn. If water flows aren't regu- lated properly hy dams, the fish are doomed. ' ' If'there is a light at the end of the. Animas-La Plata tunnel, how-, ever, it is that these endangered fish have been at the core of nu- merous water-project battles since they went on the Endangered Spe- cies list in 1974. But to date, all problems had been mitigated and the projects allowed to proceed. The two species are often called "trash fish" by anglers. Aquatic biologists aren't fond of the term when it comes to describing any of the state's four endangered warm- water fish, which also include the bonytaiJ chub and razorback suck- er. , And a case can be made for trying to save any species that has spent a million years in the Colora' do River system with all it's salt, water fluctuations, and drop of about three miles in altitude from source to delta. , While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the humpbacked and bonytail chubs could be described as - well - strange looking, to say the least. "I don't see them that way," said Jim Bennett, a non-game aquatic specialist with the Colora- do Division of Wildlife. "I see them , , as perfect examples of natirre's adaptability:' , " , Bennett said the hump behind the head of the humpbacked chub is a fleshy, bulbous protraction that allows the fish to cope with rapid currents. "The hump, along with its high, tuna-like fm, helps stabilize the fish in those rapid currents," Ben- nett said. The SQuawfish is the world's largest minnow. Once it grew' to 6- feet long and 80 pounds, and was so numerous that fanners tossed them out of canals'with pitchforks for use as fertilizer on fields. It wasn't pitchforks, however, but dams and the introduction of more than 40 exotic fish species in , western waters that forced the aforementioned four species onto the endangered list. 'Northern pike, catfish, sunfish and bass, in particular, attack the native fish or SQueeze them out. . Still, what good are they? Th. fish are honey and few people know if they're even good eating because, being endangered, it could cost $20,000 or so in fines to taste one. All things considered, Bennett said, the most compelJing reason to save them may be that they are indicator species - like canaries that forewarn of gases in mines.