The fish have been on the endangered species list since 1986. A recovery plan for the fish was finalized by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 1999. The planting is just one step in the long process of creating a sustainable population of the federally protected fish and improving their only natural habitat in the Utah Lake and the Provo River.
It is the first time so many fish have been introduced to the lake at once. Other releases have only been of a few thousand.
The fish being released are about a year old. Biologists have been capturing wild June sucker and artificially spawning them since the early 1990s, to develop stock that represents the genetic composition of the wild population.
There are about 68,000 fish spawned this year that are growing at the hatchery. They'll be released next August.