Big effort for tiny fish

PROVO — Wildlife experts fretted at the time they released 25,000 baby June suckers into Utah Lake that they would become carp lunch.

Instead, they fear, the fish were easy prey for hungry birds.

Few of the 25,000 fish flushed into the lake in May have been spotted by biologists. Only 30 to 40 were found after the first two weeks.

Only one was found last week.

"We have very few results so far. How many and where they are, we don't know," said Josh Rasmussen, a biologist for Utah's Division of Wildlife Resources central region who specializes in the June sucker, an endangered fish native to Utah Lake.

"We know some did get out into the lake, but right now, we really don't know (if the stocking was successful)."

Even if a good number survive, that won't be apparent for three or four years when the new June suckers show up at the spawning grounds, he said.

"I think it's a good step in the process of trying to figure out what to do," Rasmussen said.

"It turned out to be somewhat of a feeding frenzy. The one thing that is a little disheartening was seeing them being hit by the birds right off," said Rasmussen.

Rasmussen was one of the officials in charge of a 25,000 fish release, one of the largest direct efforts thus far to repopulate the lake with the June sucker.

"We may need to try it at night, put them in cages into the lake to release at night or maybe make some noise to scare away the birds."

Chris Kellerher, director of the June Sucker Recovery Program, said 25,000 sounds like a lot of fish but is actually only one fish per surface acre of water.

He said he and others were hoping the smaller fish would survive and make it possible to do future releases that cost less and have a better survival rate because they are less used to hatchery conditions.

Rulon Gammon, who lives at the lake's shore in Vineyard, said the June sucker will never survive until the carp are removed from the lake.

"The carp are what has eaten all the vegetation. They're ground feeders," Gammon said. "Years ago, there was a canopy of native fish and vegetation that kept the water cool, but the carp have eaten out everything."