Federal officials have plans to stock about 10,000 Gila trout in southwestern New Mexico to boost recreational fishing opportunities.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says recovery stocking goals for the threatened fish were met in 2015 so the excess fish will be released in the Gila River Forks and in Lake Roberts in early January.
The fish are expected to grow to the catchable nine-inch range by the end of May.
The Gila trout was first listed as endangered in 1966. Thanks to recovery work over the decades, its status improved and it was down listed to threatened in 2006.
For 2015, a national fish hatchery in northern New Mexico propagated more than 50,000 Gila trout for recovery efforts.
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