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fathead minnow and sand shiner were fairly stable. In the Colorado River, CPE for fathead minnow <br />and red shiner peaked in the middle portion of the sampling period and then declined. However, <br />catch rates for both species remained higher in later years (considerably so in Reach 1) than when the <br />monitoring program began in 1986. CPE for sand shiner increased steadily in both Colorado reaches <br />between 1986 and 1992. <br />These three introduced species occupy the same habitat used by YOY Colorado squawfish. All <br />backwaters (in which all fish were counted) in the Colorado River that contained Colorado squawfish <br />also contained red shiners (Table B-15). Red shiners were found in most of the seine hauls <br />containing Colorado squawfish in the Green River as well (range, 75 to 100%; mean, 94%). Fathead <br />minnows were found in 80 to 100% (mean, 98%) of samples with Colorado squawfish in the <br />Colorado River and in 27 to 100% (mean, 85%) in the Green River. Sand shiners occurred in 67 to <br />100% (mean, 909'0) of the samples containing Colorado squawfish in the Colorado River and 0 to <br />73% (mean, 37%) of those samples in the Green River (Table B-15). These species were found in <br />backwaters with Colorado squawfish at about the same rate they were found in all backwaters <br />sampled (in which all fish were counted), which suggests that Colorado squawfish are not avoiding <br />backwaters utilized by these species. <br />Gmean CPE for Colorado squawfish was significantly correlated with CPE for fathead minnow in <br />five cases (Reach 1, 1987 [r=.73]; Reach 3 in 1987 [r=.89], 1988 [r=.68], and 1990 [r=.75]; and <br />Reach 4 in 1991 (r=.53]), with CPE for red shiner in three cases (Reach 3 in 1987 [r=.76] and 1992 <br />[r=-.70]; and Reach 4 in 1986 [r=.68]), and with CPE for sand shiner in two cases (Reach 1 in 1990 <br />[r=.56] and reach 4 in 1986 [r=.60]; Table B-16). The non-significant correlations were all very <br />low, but about 70% were positive values. <br />Discussion <br />Distribution and Abundance <br />The distribution patterns of YOY Colorado squawfish correspond to observations made by earlier <br />investigators in the Green (Tyus and Haines 1991) and Colorado rivers (Valdez et al. 1982; Archer et <br />al. 1985; McAda and Kaeding 1989a). Tyus and Haines (1991) summarized catch-rate information <br />for 1979 through 1988 (excluding 1986) collected from the Green River using a similar sampling <br />design; however, they sampled the entire Green River and divided it into seven strata. Their strata A <br />and B correspond to Reach 3 of ISMP and strata E and F correspond to Reach 4. They reported a <br />higher catch rate in the lower Green River (corresponding to Reach 3) in 6 of the 9 years of study. <br />During ISMP, CPE was higher in Reach 3 than in Reach 4 during 6 of 7 years. Two years (1987 and <br />1988) sampled by Tyus and Haines overlapped with the second and third years of ISMP and data <br />collected by the two programs followed the same patterns: catch rates in both studies were much <br />higher in 1988 than they were in 1987 and CPE was higher in Reach 3 than in Reach 4 during both <br />years. The similar pattern in relative abundance of the two studies suggests that the sampling design <br />is able to pick up important differences in relative abundance among years or reaches. <br />Between 1982 and 1988, mean CPE in 1988 was the second highest value observed by Tyus and <br />Haines (1991). The highest value they observed occurred in their equivalent of Reach 3 in 1980 and <br />in Reach 4 during 1979. The lowest CPE values observed were in 1983 and 1984 when abundance of <br />small Colorado squawfish was lower than observed during all 7 years of ISMP. Their low values <br />contrasted with apparent high production of larvae in the Yampa River (Nester et al. 1988; where <br />19 <br />