Jeremy Voeltz of FWS-AFRO and Jason Kline of AZGFD take measurements of an endangered Yaqui Catfish. Photo by Chris Lohrengel (FWS), 17 October 2006, Big Tank, El Coronado Ranch, Cochise County, Arizona.

Endangered Yaqui Catfish being released after being released and PIT tagged. Photo by Chris Lohrengel (FWS), taken on 17 October, 2006 at El Coronado Ranch, Cochise County, Arizona.

In a cooperative effort between the Arizona Game and Fish Department, USFWS Ecological Services, USFWS Fisheries and San Bernardino/Leslie Canyon NWRs HCP monitoring was conducted on the El Coronado Ranch.  On October 16^th and 17th Refuge staff along with Jason Kline and Ross Timmons from the Arizona Game and Fish Department, Doug Duncan from the Arizona Environmental Services Office , and Jeremy Voeltz from the Arizona Fisheries Resource Office conducted HCP monitoring work on the El Coronado Ranch in Cochise County in Southeastern Arizona.  El Coronado Ranch, located in the west foothills of the Chiricahua Mountains, had an HCP installed in 1998 for the purpose of recovery of Rio Yaqui fish.  The monitoring is to gather information on the recovery efforts for endangered fish of the Rio Yaqui; Yaqui Chub (Gila Purpurea), Longfin Dace (Agosia chyrsogaster), and Yaqui Catfish (Ictalerus pricei).  The monitoring is conducted using several methods; electro-fishing, seining, trammel nets, hoop nets, and minnow traps. The El Coronado Ranch has several ponds that are fed by run off from the Chiracahua Mountains and West Turkey Creek, which is an ephemeral stream.  The majority of the ponds went dry this summer due to drought conditions and several salvage efforts were made to rescue fish prior to the arrival of the monsoons.  Currently all ponds on the Ranch are full, most to over capacity, and West Turkey Creek is flowing.  Unfortunately, very few fish were found during the two day effort.  This is believed to be due to a couple of factors.  The first, being that the ponds either completely dried up or they were reduced in water to the point that the water quality was not able to sustain fish.  The second possibility is that there is so much water now that a good sampling effort could not be carried out.  The one bright spot in the monitoring was that three Yaqui Catfish were netted.  This is up from last year by one and two years ago by two.