On Endangered Species Day, Utah fish shows that comebacks can happen

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Razorback suckers, with bony humps on their backs and brown-green coloring, were nearly gone from the only place they appear on earth: The Green River. They can grow up to 3.5 feet and live more than 40 years, but a few decades ago it was believed they were less than 1,000 of the fish in existence, and they were declining fast.

For Endangered Species Day — Utah has 18 wild creatures on the federal endangered species list — the razorbacks are experiencing species success that the list and the protections that come with it was created for.

“Some people hear the word ‘sucker’ and may think it’s a worthless fish, but it’s truly a unique and important species. There is no other fish in the world that has such a unique bony ridge on its back, and they have evolved to live in a truly unique habitat," Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Native Aquatics Biologist Michael Partlow said.

The razorback was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1991. It took 14 agencies and decades to figure out how to protect the fish. According to the Utah DWR that includes:

• State of Colorado
• State of Utah
• State of Wyoming
• Bureau of Reclamation
• Colorado River Energy Distributors Association
• Colorado Water Congress
• National Park Service
• The Nature Conservancy
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• Utah Water Users Association
• Western Area Power Administration
• Western Resource Advocates
• Wyoming Water Association

In unaltered nature the razorback sucker traveled between multiple habitats throughout multiple rivers and drainages, with adults migrating hundreds of miles during high spring river flows to spawn. Their offspring -- part of the diet of many predators including invasive fish species -- drift downstream to nearby wetlands where they find more quiet, warm water and better food, allowing the fish to develop and grown.

When the Flaming Gorge Dam was built in 1964, along with levees built up over the decades, much of that flood-plain habitat was gone, bringing the species to the edge of extinction.

An extensive levee removal project with breaches were created in the '90s and the operations at Flaming Gorge Dam was altered in 2006 to allow releases of water from the dam each spring to create human-created floodplains. But after several years, biologists realized the timing of the dam and larval razorback suckers didn't match. So in 2012 the program started a larval trigger study.

“The Green River flow requests are essential in helping razorback suckers and other endangered fish recover,” DWR Northeastern Region Native Aquatics Project Leader Matt Breen said. “It takes a major collaborative effort because high water flows impact so many different water users, and it just wouldn’t be possible without the continued collaboration and cooperation of our partners. These high flows also benefit the river in other ways by reducing sediment buildup and building habitat for native plants like willows and cottonwoods.”

The floodplain of Stewart Lake Waterfowl Management Area was also used that allowed larval razorback suckers in but kept large predators like the norther pike out, as well as competitors like carp. In October 2018, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to downlist the razorback sucker from endangered to threatened. Currently, there are an estimated 35,000 adult razorback suckers in the Green River, a majority of which were hatchery raised and stocked.

“Our recovery program basically had to start from scratch 30 years ago as the wild populations of razorback sucker in the Upper Colorado River Basin were on the brink of extinction," Tom Chart, director of the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program said. "Today, coordinated releases from Flaming Gorge Reservoir, coupled with proper floodplain management, are creating conditions in the river that we hope leads to self-sustaining populations in the future."