Technical Report

Ichthyofauna of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District Irrigation System: Cochiti Dam to Elephant Butte State Park, July-August 1993

URL: https://webapps.usgs.gov/mrgescp/documents/Lang%20and%20Altenbach_1994_Ichthyofauna%20of%20the%20MRG%20Conservancy%20District%20irrigation%20system%20Cochiti%20Dam%20to%20Elephant%20Butte%20State%20Park%2C%20July-August%201993.pdf

Date: 1994/04/01

Author(s): Lang B.K., Altenbach C.S.

Publication: Report prepared for U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, 82 p.

Abstract:

The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (MRGCD) consists of four divisions (Cochiti, Albuquerque, Belen, and Socorro) encompassing about 150 river miles from Cochiti Dam to the northern boundary of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. The Albuquerque and Belen divisions are bounded at their northern limits by low-head diversion dams, Cochiti Dam and Reservoir head the Cochiti Division, and the technical origin of the Socorro Division was just upstream of San Acacia Diversion Dam. About 834 miles of irrigation channels and 386 miles of interior and riverside drains provide a network of irrigation systems throughout the Middle Rio Grande Valley.

The study area encompassed the entire Middle Rio Grande Valley from Cochiti Dam to Elephant Butte State Park, including the Low Flow Conveyance Canal (LFCC) and irrigation channels within Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. We surveyed 74 sites (July-August 1993) in the study area to characterize the distribution and relative abundance of fish species of the MRGCD.

A total of 12,570 specimens representing 6 orders, 9 families, and 27 species was collected from the study area. Nine native species accounted for 63.9% of the study area collection. Two species of native cyprinids, red shiner and fathead minnow, constituted 58.0% of all specimens. Eighteen introduced species, represented by six families, accounted for 36.1% of the study area catch. Non-predator species (N=6) represented 70.7% of the introduced catch. Twelve predator species comprised 29.3% of the introduced catch.