Fund Arizona Fish and Game Department to Collect and Rear the Endangered Humpback Chub (Gila cypha)

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Grand Canyon National Park (GRCA) has initiated a research project with the overall goal of translocating wild, young-of-year (YOY) humpback chub (HBC) from the Little Colorado River to Shinumo, Havasu, and Bright Angel Creeks over a period of four (4) years (2009-2012). Humpback chub (Gila cypha), is a species listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, and is native to GRCA. The project involves collecting YOY HBC previous to the year of a planned release into the above mentioned tributaries, rearing the fish in a hatchery facility until they are large enough to be tagged with a passive-integrated-transponder (PIT), and treated for parasites and diseases, and provided exercise conditioning prior to release. The hatchery rearing period with associated treatments is necessary to minimize mortality of translocated fish, and avoid introducing diseases that are present in the Little Colorado River into other waters of GRCA. The National Park Service (NPS) has no hatchery facility to accomplish this work, however, the Arizona Game and Fish Department (Department) maintains and operates a state of the art hatchery facility near GRCA.

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