What needs to be done to recover the endangered fishes?
As the Department of the Interior agency responsible for administering the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has prepared recovery goals that identify site-specific management actions to minimize or remove threats and specify the numbers of fish required for self-sustaining populations. The recovery goals identify nonnative fishes in the Colorado River system as a primary threat to the continued existence or reestablishment of self-sustaining endangered fish populations. The goals detail actions to minimize impacts from nonnative fishes including reducing their numbers through removal and relocation. In other cases, installing fish screens may be sufficient to prevent escapement of nonnative fishes from ponds and reservoirs into the river where they might interact with the endangered fishes. Nonnative fish management is only one piece of the recovery puzzle. Recovery efforts are also underway to provide river flows, restore habitat, construct fish screens and m
