Colorado River Ecology and Dam Management Proceedings of a Symposium May 24-25, 1990 Santa Fe, New Mexico (1991) / Chapter Skim
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Native Fishes of the Grand Canyon Region: An Obituary?
Native Fishes of the Grand Canyon Region: An Obituary?
Pages 124-177
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From page 124... ...
INTRODUCTION The U.S. National Park Service was founded in 1916 with a mandate to preserve resources Placed under its care "unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." Shortly thereafter, in 1919, Grand Canyon National Park was established to protect the natural attributes of spectacular gorges cut by the Colorado River.
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From page 125... ...
. This paper concerns the decline and disappearance of indigenous fishes from the lower Colorado River, including the Grand Canyon region.
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From page 126... ...
From 45.4 to 455 million metric tons years of silt was transported through Grand Canyon between 1922 and 1935 (Howard, 1947; Howard and Dolan, 1981) , while records at Yuma varied from 36.3 to 326 million metric tons in the same period.
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From page 127... ...
Such places provide substrate for biological colonization. No studies are available for large unmodified rivers of the lower Colorado basin, but primary producers and stream invertebrates in small desert streams are remarkably resilient (Meffe and Minckley, 1987; Grimm and Fisher, 1989~.
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From page 128... ...
. a larger percentage of species peculiar to a single river basin than is found elsewhere In North America.
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Scattered throughout these works were notes on faunal declines, and Miller (1946b) published an early plea for study of native fishes before further alterations of the large western rivers were undertaken.
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began sampling in 1968 and 1970, respectively, the downstream impacts of Glen Canyon Dam were already evident. In 1963, partially in response to public outcry over the poisoning, agencies such as the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and state conservation departments began studies of Green River fishes (Vanicek, 1967; Vanicek and Kramer, 1969; Vanicek et al., 1970~.
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From page 131... ...
NATIVE FISHES Six of eight fishes native to Grand Canyon National Park (Table 7-1) are endemic.
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From page 132... ...
Colorado squawfish Speekled daee Introdueed species Common earp Red shiner Golden shiner Fathead minnow Redside shiner CATOSTOMIDAE, suckers all native Flannelrnouth sucker Bluchead sucker * Razorback sucker ICTALURIDAE, bullhead catfishes all introduced Blaek bullhead Channel catfish FUNDULIDAE, killifishes introduced Plains killifish POECILIIDAE, livebearers- introdueed Mosquitofish CENTRARCHIDAE, sunfishes—all introduced Green sunfish Bluegill Largemouth bass PERCICHTHYIDAE, temperate basses introduced Striped bass Dorosoma petenense GHnther Oncorhynchus apache Miller O
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From page 133... ...
124) erred in attributing it to Grand Canyon in 1872: He [a member of the second Powell Expedition]
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From page 134... ...
The others were considerably shorter but nevertheless very large fish. Colorado squawfish were familiar to all of the early canyon explorers.
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From page 135... ...
A few scientific collections were made specifically in Glen and Marble/ Grand canyons prior to the 1960s. The survey of Glen Canyon in 1958 included 27 sites, mostly in tributaries (Smith, 1959; Smith et al., 1959; McDonald and Dotson, 1960~.
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From page 136... ...
Unfortunately, however, many data are in state and federal agency reports, difficult to find and obtain, and mostly dealing with limited geographic areas. A review of the fish fauna of Marble/Grand canyons was thus difficult to prepare without an overburdening volume of citations.
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From page 137... ...
moved into canyons to avoid declining water levels or high summer water temperatures (Siebert, 1980~. Adults of each species lived in proximity to their preferred foods and among physical habitat features commensurate with their sizes and morphologies.
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From page 138... ...
I suspect adult Ponytails to have stayed mostly in the water column in the channel with razorbacks. Deep pools and eddies of whitewater canyons support humpback chubs, alone except for transients of other species.
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From page 139... ...
Speckled dace also are insectivores or facultative omnivores, delving over and into bottom interstices in search of invertebrates and other organic materials. By and large, reproductive sites seem more similar among species than are habitats and food habits.
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From page 140... ...
The interrelations of movements and reproduction in Grand/Marble Canyon humpbacks are not yet understood. Speckled dace enter tributaries to spawn, both in Marble/Grand canyons and elsewhere.
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From page 141... ...
Young of other species, including humpback chubs from canyons and dace from tributary mouths, also seem to travel downflow along shorelines and into embayments and backwaters at first and then move with increased age and size to occupy their adult niches in the channel. REASONS FOR DISAPPEARANCE OF THE FAUNA Nonbiological Changes Human modification of the Colorado River basin is profound.
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From page 142... ...
At least 20 species of nonnative fishes were planted in Utah prior to 1900 (Sigler and Sigler, 1987~; catfishes and carp were well established by then in the lower Colorado (Chamberlain, 1904~. As time went on, stocking shifted toward predatory species for reservoir sportf~sheries, additional bait species escaped, and forage fishes were introduced.
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From page 143... ...
, but we are not even sure of this. Few things seem to help native fishes survive the onslaught of alien forms, aside from strong evidence that flooding in canyons displaces nonnative fishes while native species are unaffected.
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From page 144... ...
Few realize that trout were introduced into cool tributaries of the Marble/Grand canyons system in the 1920s, long before any dams (McKee, 1930; Brooks, 1931; Williamson and Tyler, 1932; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1980, 1981~.
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From page 145... ...
Because of persistence of cold water through most of Marble/ Grand canyons, trout remain common through more than 300 km of river (Maddux et al., 1987) , although few are harvested downstream from Lee's Ferry because of limited access.
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From page 146... ...
Warming would nonetheless allow rein~oduchon of squawfish and bonytail, with a chance for reestablishment, and might stimulate recruitment by the remnant populations of humpback chub and razorback suckers. Other native fishes could be benefited as well.
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(1982a) on native fishes of the upper Colorado River basin and Minckley and Deacon (1991)
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From page 148... ...
Proponents consider the smelt a potential salvation for striped bass fisheries of lower Colorado River basin reservoirs. I am of the opinion that if stocked and established, the species will be detrimental to both native and nonnative fishes throughout the system.
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From page 149... ...
Broodstocks of all of the larger fishes are already available, reintroduction programs are under way in parts of the Colorado River basin (Johnson and Jensen, 1991) , and I am convinced that a successful management program could be devised and implemented for the Grand Canyon region.
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From page 150... ...
O Minckley further provided literature and advice based on his long experience in Grand Canyon.
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From page 151... ...
The few fish taken in Marble/Grand canyons presumably originate from the Little Colorado River stock (Kaeding and Zimmerman, 1982, 1983; Maddux et al., 1987~. Other populations persist in the Yampa and Green rivers, upper Colorado River, and Cataract Canyon below the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers (Tyus and Karp, 1989; Valdez, 1990~.
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From page 152... ...
, respectively indicated 7,000-8,000, 5,783, 7,060, and 10,120 fish. Other native species in the Little Colorado River include speckled dace and flannelmouth, bluehead, and razorback suckers, in decreasing order of abundance.
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From page 153... ...
and skeletal material from Stanton's Cave (Miller and Smith, 1984) document bonytail presence in Marble/Grand canyons.
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From page 154... ...
Like humpback chubs, bonytail grow quickly to large sizes. Some grow longer than 30 cm in their first year of life in artificial ponds (P.
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From page 155... ...
, and Minckley and Deacon (1968) documented their extirpation, mostly before 1970, from the Colorado River basin downstream from Grand Canyon.
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From page 156... ...
Today they feed on introduced fishes as well, sometimes choking on the erected fin spines of channel catfish that they attempt to swallow (Pimental et al., 1985~. In 1979, I theorized that adult squawfish in the lower Colorado River basin lived on the vast and complex Colorado delta (Minckley, 1979)
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From page 157... ...
Whitewater canyons upstream from valley reaches that to serve as nurseries were also present on the Verde and upper Gila rivers, and adult squawfish were in both those systems (Minckley, 1973~. I have no comparable data for the lower Colorado mainstem but expect that runs were later there than on the Gila.
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From page 158... ...
Speckled dace remain locally common in the channel upstream from Lake Mead, especially in creek mouths (Minckley and Blinn, 1976; Minckley, 1978; Carothers and Minckley, 1981~. Large numbers can also be seined along sandbars in the river, but their actual abundance in that habitat has not been adequately assessed.
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From page 159... ...
examined flannelmouth populations in the Grand Canyon region, concluding that morphological variation was greater than to be expected in a single species. A related, undescribed form lives in the Little Colorado River (Minckley, 1973, 1980~.
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From page 160... ...
Their feeding adaptations include broad, disc-shaped lips and strong cartilaginous sheaths on the jaws, used for grazing films of algae and other organisms. There are few records of bluehead suckers downstream from Grand Canyon.
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From page 161... ...
Despite adaptations for scraping algae, foods of bluehead suckers in Marble/ Grand canyons were mostly immature dipterans and amphipods in the mainstream and dipterans in tributaries (Carothers and Minckley, 1981~. Diatoms and organic debris were nonetheless abundant in guts at all seasons.
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From page 162... ...
One specimen from the Grand Canyon region was caught by an angler in 1944, Arizona Game and Fish Department personnel caught another near Lees Ferry in 1963, four were captured or seen in the Paria River in 19781979 (Minckley and Carothers, 1980) , one was taken in the mainstream in 1986, three were seen in 1987 in Bright Angel Creek, and two and three, respectively, were netted in the mouth of the Little Colorado River in 1989 and 1990.
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From page 163... ...
In the upper basin, razorback suckers spawn near the upstream ends of gravel-cobble riffles during May and early June, at water temperature higher than 16°C and velocities less than 1.0 m so, and generally in places less than 1 m deep (McAda and Wydoski, 1980; Tyus, 1987~. Turbidities are too high for direct spawning observations in the Green River, but in clear water in the short reach of river below Lake Mead, two or more males accosted each female entering a spawning Tea (Mueller, 1989~.
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From page 164... ...
National Park Service, Grand Canyon National Park, relative to U.S. National Park Service (1977)
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From page 165... ...
Colorado River Research Series Contribution (Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon, Ariz.)
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From page 166... ...
1978. Archaeological and paleobiological studies at Stanton's Cave, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona A report of progress.
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From page 167... ...
1973. Distribution, abundance, and life history of the fishes of the upper Colorado River Basin.
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From page 168... ...
1982. Life history and ecology of the humpback chub in the Little Colorado and Colorado rivers of the Grand Canyon, Arizona.
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From page 169... ...
1983. Life history and ecology of the humpback chub in the Little Colorado and Colorado rivers of Grand Canyon.
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From page 170... ...
1955. Fish remains from archaeological sites in the lower Colorado River basin, Arizona.
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From page 171... ...
1981. Observations on the humpback chub, Gila cyp ha, within the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.
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From page 172... ...
Final Report U.S. National Park Service Contract, Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon, Arizona.
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From page 173... ...
1987. River and Dam Management: A Review of the Bureau of Reclamation's Glen Canyon Environmental Studies.
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From page 174... ...
1979. Species relationships among fishes of the genus Gila of the upper Colorado River Basin.
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From page 175... ...
Survey of fishes, mammals and herpetofauna of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. Colorado River Research Series Contribution (Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon, Ariz.)
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From page 176... ...
Natural Resource Management Plan and Environmental Assessment. Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon, Arizona 127 p.
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From page 177... ...
1932. Trout propagation in Grand Canyon National Park.
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