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UUIUr'duu nivtr The upper Colorado River, above the study area, was similar to the Gunnison in appearance and in species of fish found. The major change in fish species probably occurs near the town of Rifle, Colorado. This is pri- marily due to changes in river characteristics and habitat type. Man's activity are probably not directly responsible for these changes until the river enters the area of study. Few fish studies have been done on the Colorado River in the area of this study, thus there is little historic fishery information available for comparison. The major reason for this void in historic data was the lack of interest in non-trout waters. Only recently have people become interested in non-game species of fish. As mentioned previously, the Colorado River was divided into just two major sections. Data from previous studies indicated that certain areas were important to the native endangered species of fish under study. Data collected by the author in a previous study with the Colorado Division of Wildlife, Kidd (1974) and data collected by N.F.R.I. in 1976, and Holden (1974), is presented for comparison with the Gunnison data (Table 3), as indexes of population numbers or actual relative abundance for all species shown. A reason for exercising caution when interpreting these data is that the sampling gear and major efforts were directed for collection of these first four noted endemic species and not for other species. Thus no randomization or systematic sampling was employed. Backwater areas seem to be key areas for squawfish and razorback suckers. Humpback chubs were found in a canyon area with de p holes. Estimates of the physical size of backwater areas,,where these fish were found are pre- sented in Table 4. A permanent type of connection to the main river seemed (16)