7108 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

~ ~~5 ~- ~~~ ~ ~~~~ REINTRODUCING THE NATIVES: WLORADO SQUAWFISH AND WOUNllFIN by James E. Johnson, Chief, Office of Endangered Species U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Albuquerque, New i`texico ABSTRACT Reintroduction efforts for several native southwestern fishes are reviewed, as are the historic and present distributions of Colorado squawfish and woundfin. The new experimental category under the Endangered Species Act is discussed. Under that -classification, over 117,000 squawfish have been stocked into the Salt and Verde rivers in Arizona during 1985 from Dexter National Fish hatchery. Reintroduction of woundfin is slowed due to propagation problems, but will start with wild captured fish in 1986. ABSTR_ACTU La introducion de esfuersos de varias pees nativas del suroeste sera repasado igualmente Como el aspe.cto his torico y distribution presente de "squawfish" de Colorado y "woundfin". La nueva cat egori"a experimental del acto de especies en peligrc tambien sera discutido. Incluyid~ en esa clasificacion hay sobre 117,000 "squawfish" de Colorado que se har. puesto en los rios Salt y Verde en Arizona durante el a`~o 1985, del "Dexter National Fish Hatchery." La reintroducion de "woundfin" se ha despaciado por. que hay problems de pr opagacion Pero es to comensara con peces capturadas en 1986. Introduction Native southwestern fishes have undergone drastic declines in numbers and distributions during the latter part of the Twentieth Century, as cited in numerous scientific papers and articles (see Johnson and Rinne 1982, Ono, et al. 1983 for reviews). The amplitude of this problem has been most recently demonstrated in the listing of endangered fishes compiled by Deacon, et al.(1979), in which 46% of the 203 U.S. and Canadian species were found in the Southwest. It has been estimated that 81% of Arizona's native fishes and 42% of New Mexico's native fishes are ti ow protected under State or Federal "endangered species" legisation (Johnson and Rinne 1982). In order to reverse this decline, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has developed recovery plans for many of the southwestern fish species listed on the Federal Endangered Species Act (Table 1), and has begun their implementation. Several management plans for individual recovery actions have also been written by State, Federal and private agencies. These documents are produced to coordinate the recovery actions of the various agencies charged with the protections and recovery of these fishes.