Cutting Edge Technology Helps Yaqui Catfish

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US Fish and Wildlife Service Press Release

Few know of the Yaqui catfish but those who do are concerned about its plight. This threatened species, the only native catfish west of the Continental Divide, has faced what is familiar to many imperiled fishes: an onslaught of competition and hybridization with non-native fishes coupled with habitat loss. But the Yaqui catfish holds on in portions of its native range in Yaqui River basin of Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico, and southeastern Arizona giving biologists hope that one day it will rebound.

?Wild Yaqui catfish are faced with the menacing encroachment of non-native channel catfish,? said David Oviedo, hatchery manager at Uvalde National Fish Hatchery in Uvalde, Texas. ?There?s grave concern that we could end up with a channel-Yaqui hybrid population throughout its native range.?

Uvalde NFH may hold the key to restoring this remarkable catfish to its historic range--not to mention advancing its complete recovery rangewide.

For three challenging years, hatchery biologists tried unsuccessfully to spawn the imperiled catfish. Standard catfish culture techniques did not work, but new ones have showed promise.

?This species had never been spawned in captivity until it was brought to Uvalde,? says Manuel Ulibarri, Uvalde?s former manager. ?Relying on our experience with channel catfish and new emerging tools, we were able to spawn Yaquis in the hatchery. This ground-breaking work now allows the hatchery to raise fish for repatriation in the wild.?

Ulibarri notes that the catfish?s recovery plan identifies a captive brood stock as essential to its recovery.

The brood stock at Uvalde is growing. With the careful guidance of geneticists at Dexter National Fish Hatchery and Technology Center, Dexter, New Mexico, progress is being made. Through methodical management, hatchery biologists identify individual fish to ensure the genetic integrity of the brood stock and their future offspring. Coded internal tags allow biologists to track growth and condition of the Yaqui catfish.

Uvalde NFH presently holds 40 wild Yaqui catfish and has so far produced more than 30,000 young fish. Those hatchery-reared fish have been used for refining cultural techniques and brood stock development. With the cooperative efforts of the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the Centro Ecologico de Sonora, other hatchery-reared fish now face the rigors of the wild.

That?s where San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge comes in. This refuge, located on the Arizona-Mexico border, is dedicated to conserving fishes native to the Yaqui River basin. More than 350 Yaqui catfish were stocked there in 1997, after being extirpated a century earlier.

But there is more than brood stock development going on at Uvalde, notes Oviedo. ?The first Yaqui catfish at Uvalde were wild. We had to learn a lot about how to feed them, how to care for them. And they are, by all accounts, the most difficult catfish to raise in captivity.?

It?s all for a good cause--restoring this catfish to its native habitat. And as Service biologists learn more about this species, ancillary benefits could spin off to the aquaculture industry and perhaps a unique sport fishery could develop for the species.

--Craig L. Springer, Division of Fisheries,
Albuquerque, New Mexico