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Studies specifically directed at determining population size of Colorado pikeminnow in <br />the Green River basin began in 2000 (T. Czapla, personal communication). Because that was <br />the last year of ISMP no comparisons between mean CPE and an independent population <br />estimate can be made for that basin. However, it may be possible to compare annual sampling <br />effort with annual population estimates when the study is completed. Because sampling effort <br />in the new study includes the entire range of occupied habitat and will collect the fish used in <br />the estimate, the possibility of understanding the relationship between the two values will be <br />enhanced. Bayley and Austen (2002) demonstrated the importance of determining <br />catchability (fish capture efficiency; the proportion of fish caught from a known or accurately <br />estimated population) of target species before using change in CPE to estimate change in <br />abundance. Careful analysis of the population-estimation data may provide catchability <br />estimates for Colorado pikeminnow. If catchability can be estimated under a wide range of <br />environmental conditions, CPE maybe useful to monitor trends in Colorado pikeminnow <br />abundance after mark-recapture population estimates are no longer required. <br />Size structure of Colorado pikeminnow populations in the different rivers determined by <br />ISMP corresponds with previous studies. Osmundson et al. (1998) and Valdez et al. (1982) <br />also found that most small Colorado pikeminnow were found in the lower Colorado River. <br />Osmundson et al. (1998) described upstream dispersal patterns of Colorado pikeminnow in <br />the Colorado River as they grew and matured. In the Green River basin, Tyus (1991) reported <br />that most small Colorado pikeminnow were found in the lower Green River and that the <br />Yampa River population was almost entirely adult fish. However, the small numbers offish <br />collected in some years (especially early in ISMP) meant that the annual length-frequency <br />histograms were probably incomplete in some cases. This situation was partly remedied in <br />later years when more fish were collected and by the addition of the alternate reaches in 1994. <br />The alternate reaches added 16 to 115 extra fish per year for use in the length-frequency <br />distributions which substantially improved sample size in some years. <br />Upstream dispersal of Colorado pikeminnow as they mature may partially explain <br />differences in annual trends between upper and lower portions of the Green and Colorado <br />rivers. Upstream movement of maturing fish could drop catch rates in lower reaches and <br />increase catch rates in upper reaches in some years, even though river-wide CPE was stable or <br />mcreas~ng. <br />Electrofishing is size selective (i.e. larger fish are mare susceptible to capture than smaller <br />fish [Reynolds 1996]) and smaller Colorado pikeminnow may be under represented in ISMP <br />samples even though they were captured in substantial numbers in some years. For example, <br />the mode for the average length-frequency distribution for the lower Colorado River is larger <br />than reported by Osmundson (2002) in most years. This may result from scare and snare <br />being more efficient than shoreline electrofishing in capturing smaller Colorado pikeminnow. <br />20 <br />