PHOENIX —  Old shoes, broken washing machines, and shopping carts aren’t the only things pulled from the canals in Phoenix when the waterways are cleaned out each year. Today, the Arizona Game and Fish Department and Salt River Project (SRP) held their annual canal cleanup, and truckloads of fish were taken out of the water and moved to more appropriate places to live.

Arizona Game and Fish Department biologists use a net to salvage fish from a Phoenix canal.

“Some of these fish are being placed in urban lakes, so Arizonans can enjoy fishing for them,” says Rob Bettaso, an Arizona Game and Fish Department biologist. “Many native fish, including an occasional imperiled species, will be taken to safer locations, where they will have more protection.”

Most people probably don’t know that sections of the canals in Phoenix have electric barriers along the bottom. That’s because SRP places a type of nonnative fish in the water, in order to help control the growth of algae and plants without the use of chemicals. The barriers are aimed at keeping this particular nonnative fish, the white amur, from swimming up into the Salt and Verde rivers and multiplying, which can threaten the environment of important native fish.

Biologist Jim Warnecke with a 25-pound bigmouth buffalo.

“When we salvage fish  during the yearly canal cleanup, we can also  make sure those electric barriers are working,” says Jim Warnecke, the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s Phoenix/Mesa area Fish Program Manager. “We always hope we won’t find these particular nonnative fish on the wrong side of the barrier.”

Catfish, bass, trout, and other sportfish are regularly taken out of the canals during the annual cleanup. They are then placed in one or more lakes in the Phoenix area.

“People who buy an urban fishing license will be able to enjoy these fish as part of the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s Urban Fishing Program,” says Eric Swanson, head of that program. “Various lakes in Phoenix, Chandler, Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert, Surprise, and Peoria are included in the Urban Fishing Program.”

“After this cleanup, many people in Phoenix will only notice that the canals have less debris, including trash, in them,” says Bettaso. “However, it’s important to realize this annual cleanup is a great opportunity to take care of wildlife such as fish, too.”

During today’s cleanup, 171 fish were pulled from the canals, including a 25-pound fish called a bigmouth buffalo. In all, fish of 15 different species were moved to different waters.

The canal cleanup and fish salvage are a joint project of Arizona Game and Fish Department, Salt River Project, and the Bureau of Reclamation.