Native Aquatic Species of the Gila River Basin
in Arizona and New Mexico
What's New
Bubbling Ponds Native Fish Hatchery, June 26, 2007
The Bubbling Ponds Native Fish Hatchery, funded largely by Reclamation through its Central Arizona Project native fish recovery fund, is finally ready to receive and propagate native fishes of the Gila River basin. Years of planning and development went into the hatchery, whose primary focus is to house rare populations of federally-threatened loach minnow and spikedace
as insurance against extinction in the wild, and to propagate them to establish new populations in the wild. If not
fully used for those purposes, the hatchery can be used for other Gila basin native fishes as needed, and will also
serve as a research facility. The hatchery water source is pathogen-free, constant-temperature, artesian well water,
which supplies a series of 24 circular, flow-through raceways. The hatchery is operated by the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
Press release from Arizona Game and Fish Department
Whirling Disease Discovered in Trout at Lees Ferry
Released on Jun 15, 2007
Threatened and Endangered Species Translocated to Southeastern Arizona
A multi-agency team converged in southeastern Arizona on October 4 to transport four species of federally-listed
native fish to new locations at Muleshoe Ranch Cooperative Management Area (CMA). A Bureau of Reclamation helicopter
was used to transport the fish. A total of 410 loach minnow and 420 spikedace captured from Aravaipa Creek were
loaded into 55-gallon drums and flown to and released in equal numbers to Redfield and Hot Springs canyons. These
were the first attempts at transplantation of these species since the late 1960s, and represent an important first
step in recent efforts to establish replicated populations of these critically-imperiled species.
Approximately 1000 Gila topminnow and 1000 desert pupfish were also transported to Cherry Springs, Swamp Springs, and
Secret Spring on the Muleshoe Ranch during the operation. The topminnow came from Bylas Springs stock held at
Arizona State University, and the pupfish were taken from the refuge population held at The Nature Conservancy’s San
Pedro River Preserve, which hold Ciénega de Santa Clara stock from Mexico. All sites will be augmented with
additional stock in coming years, and monitoring will be conducted to assess the success of the repatriated
populations.
The repatriations were a collaborative project unprecedented in scale for Arizona. The Muleshoe CMA is managed
jointly by The Nature Conservancy, USDA Forest Service, and U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Additional partners
included the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Arizona Fish & Game Department, Arizona State Lands Department, and the
University of Arizona.
Last Reviewed:
February 1, 2008