Is Havasu Creek a good candidate Stream for translocating humpback chub, Gila cypha?

Authors: Pamela J. Sponholtz, Michael J. Pillow, Brian D. Healy

Year: 2010 (xlii)

Abstract

The Little Colorado River (LCR), a tributary to the mainstem Colorado River in Grand Canyon, provides important spawning and rearing habitat for endangered humpback chub, Gila cypha. However, as part of an integrated conservation effort, translocations of humpback chub into other tributaries within Grand Canyon are currently underway. Havasu Creek has long been heralded as the clear choice for humpback chub translocation due to its seemingly congruent water quality, size and flooding regime as the LCR. To test this, biologists from the National Park Service, Grand Canyon National Park (NPS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) initiated in a baseline fishery survey of Havasu Creek below Beaver Falls in Grand Canyon National Park. The goal of this survey was to collect data to help determine whether the tributary is biologically suitable for humpback chub. Specifically, baseline water quality, plant, fish abundance and distribution, macroinvertebrate, and food web data were collected to augment the existing knowledge base of the biotic and physical community in Havasu Creek. Fish captures were low using all gears despite over 1,728 cumulative fishing hours. Native fishes including bluehead sucker, Catastomus discobolus, and speckled dace, Rhinichthys osculus, were captured along with nonnative rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss. Water temperature ranged from 12.1 through 15.2 °C, while turbidity generally decreased through the study (95-29 NTU). While this survey was only the first of two scheduled baseline surveys, preliminary results indicate that similarities between the LCR and Havasu Creek are greater than the differences and that translocations of HBC into Havasu Creek should be strongly considered.