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Maturation Of An Off-Channel Habitat Concept To Conserve Native Fishes In The Lower Colorado River, Paul C. Marsh, Thomas E. Dowling, Thomas F. Turner, Megan J. Osborne, Brian R. Kesner

Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist

Two endemic, “large river” fishes of the Colorado River basin of western North America, bonytail Gila elegans and razorback sucker Xyrauchen texanus, are among several critically endangered species in the system. Wild populations of bonytail are gone, and there are no self-sustaining populations of razorback sucker anywhere; reproduction occurs but recruitment does not. Both species have been under intensive management in the Lower Colorado River since the 1980s. Today, with the single exception of Lake Mead, remaining populations are composed entirely of repatriated individuals that depend on stocking for their continued existence. In 2003, a conceptual off-channel habitat (OCH) …