“They scooped me up in a net and took me to the Mother Ship and stuck me with a piece of glass and probed my genitals and brought me back here,’” Harris said, throwing his head back and splaying his arms to imitate fish stunned by the electric current.

“And all their friends go, ‘Yeah, right.’”

Funny as that sounds, the humpback chub’s experience is surprisingly meaningful now, as its river habitat deep in the iconic, redrock canyon becomes the subject of new scrutiny. New negotiations about the Colorado’s future begin later this year in a world that has fundamentally changed since foundational water agreements were drawn up, back when the river was flush and the entire basin was treated like a giant network of irrigation ditches.