Environmental groups are calling on federal officials to prevent populations of non-native smallmouth bass from establishing below Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, among others, the predatory fish poses a grave danger to the threatened humpback chub which lives at the Confluence of the Little Colorado River.
The groups submitted formal comments Friday and want the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to manage river flows to avoid harm to the chub population.
In recent months, drought and declines in the levels at Lake Powell have caused warm water and smallmouth bass to pass through the dam.
Officials and conservationists worry if bass populations take hold in the Grand Canyon they’d be impossible to control and would wipe out the chub.