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<br />1861 <br /> <br />stocking, even though 500,000 larvae were stocked. Reductions in larvae nwnbers, from the stocking site <br /> <br />to Lake Powell, suggested that some may have been retained in the river; however, no YOY were found, <br /> <br />suggesting that either survival was low or sufficient larvae were not provided for the experiment. It must <br /> <br />be remembered that 10 adult female Colorado pikeminnow or razorback sucker can produce 1 million <br /> <br />larvae. When the San Juan River has 100 adult females producing 10 times that nwnber of larvae, a <br /> <br />reasonable experiment may be conducted. <br /> <br />As populations increase and expand upstream to near Fannington, New Mexico, other factors such as <br /> <br />diversion dams, temperature, and predation by nonnative species may also become more evident. As <br /> <br />nwnbers and range are expanded, more endangered fishes may use habitats where contaminants are a <br /> <br />concern. Therefore, just because some factors were not found to be limiting during the 7-year research <br /> <br />period does not mean that they will not be limiting at some time in the future. The Monitoring Plan (Propst <br /> <br />2000) developed by the Biology Committee recognizes these concerns and includes continuing assessment <br /> <br /> <br />of factors that may become future concerns. The only factor that has been eliminated for review during <br /> <br /> <br />monitoring is fish health. But abnonnalities will continue to be part of the adult fish monitoring protocol, and <br /> <br /> <br />fish health experts will be added to the monitoring effort if warranted in the future. <br /> <br />All biological organisms are limited from infinite population expansion by their environment. Environments <br /> <br /> <br />have a finite canying capacity that restricts organisma1 population expansion through mechanisrns such as <br /> <br /> <br />food availability, habitat availability, predation, and competition. Very little infonnation is available <br /> <br /> <br />regarding the historical abundance of fish species in the San Juan River, but what is available indicates that <br /> <br />3-103 <br /> <br />Draft Program Evaluation Report <br /> <br />March 2000 <br /> <br />.~ <br />