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Biologists try to save ancient fish as Colorado River fades

A Utah State University research team untangles a fish from a gillnet net on Tuesday, June 7, 2022, in Page, Ariz. The student and colleagues are on a mission to save the humpback chub, an ancient fish under assault from nonnative predators in the Colorado River. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson) A Utah State University research team pulls in a gillnet at Lake Powell on Tuesday, June 7, 2022, in Page, Ariz. They are on a mission to save the humpback chub, an ancient fish under assault from nonnative predators in the Colorado River. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson) A common carp thrashes as it is pulled in to a research boat using a gillnet net on Tuesday, June 7, 2022, in Page, Utah. A team of researchers are on a mission to save the humpback chub, an ancient fish under assault from nonnative predators in the Colorado River. The reservoir's decline may soon make things worse, enabling the invaders to get past the dam and target the chub's biggest populations farther southwest in the Grand Canyon. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson) Utah State University lab technician Justin Furby weighs a smallmouth bass Tuesday, June 7, 2022, in Page, Ariz. The Colorado River's declining levels poses a new risk for the humpback chub. Smallmouth bass feast on humpback chub in the river's upper section, where agencies spend millions of dollars annually to keep the intruders in check. As Lake Powell levels drop, those predators could soon pass through Glen Canyon Dam in significant numbers and prey on native fish downstream. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson) Utah State University master's student Barrett Friesen records data about the nonnative fish he is researching for the Bureau of Reclamation on Tuesday, June 7, 2022, in Page, Ariz. The student and colleagues are on a mission to save the humpback chub, an ancient fish under assault from nonnative predators in the Colorado River. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson) Utah State University lab technician Justin Furby removes the stomach of a smallmouth bass on Tuesday, June 7, 2022, in Page, Ariz. The Colorado River's declining levels poses a new risk for the humpback chub. Smallmouth bass feast on humpback chub in the river's upper section, where agencies spend millions of dollars annually to keep the intruders in check. As Lake Powell levels drop, those predators could soon pass through Glen Canyon Dam in significant numbers and prey on native fish downstream. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson) A Utah State University research team untangles a gizzard shad from a gillnet net on Tuesday, June 7, 2022, in Page, Ariz. They are on a mission to save the humpback chub, an ancient fish under assault from nonnative predators in the Colorado River. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson) In this July 7, 2020 image provided by the National Park Service, an adult chub is held on the Colorado River near Shinumo Creek, in Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. Low water levels upstream at Lake Powell pose a new risk for the ancient fish. (Brian Healy/National Park Service via AP) Utah State University master's student Barrett Friesen steers a boat near Glen Canyon Dam on Lake Powell on Tuesday, June 7, 2022, in Page, Ariz. The dam's completion in 1963 was a primary reason the humpback chub nearly died out in the Colorado River they had inhabited for millions of years. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson) A Utah State University research team pulls in a walleye in a gillnet along a shallow shoreline at Lake Powell on Tuesday, June 7, 2022, in Page, Ariz. They are on a mission to save the humpback chub, an ancient fish under assault from nonnative predators in the Colorado River. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson) Utah State University master's student Barrett Friesen steers a boat through Lake Powell on Tuesday, June 7, 2022 in Page, Ariz. The student and colleagues are on a mission to save the humpback chub, an ancient fish under assault from nonnative predators in the Colorado River. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson) A Utah State University research team pulls in a gillnet net at Lake Powell on Tuesday, June 7, 2022, in Page, Ariz. They are on a mission to save the humpback chub, an ancient fish under assault from nonnative predators in the Colorado River. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson)