Laserfiche WebLink
<br />Introduction <br /> <br />6 <br /> <br />tification quiz where I showed seniors a group of photographs that included both <br />endangered and non-endangered fish. The seniors were asked to identify each <br />one. Included in the photographs were the four endangered fish, a flannelmouth <br />sucker, a roundtail chub, a rainbow trout and a northern pike. <br />Although the identification quiz was a necessary part of my interviews, in <br />some ways it did not prove useful. Many of the seniors had not seen the endan- <br />gered fish since childhood, and while they could verbally describe the fish, they <br />had a very hard time identifying them. <br />Also, many seniors who incorrectly identified the fish were under the <br />strong assumption or perception that recovery efforts were being directed <br />toward flannelmouth suckers or roundtail chubs. Those perceptions contributed <br />strongly to their attitudes toward the endangered species and efforts to recover <br />them. This led me to conclude that when considering interviewees' attitudes <br />toward the fish, accurate species identification on their part was not ultimately <br />important - rather, their perceptions were. <br />Each of the 111 interviews was taped and transcribed. From the mass of <br />dialogue gathered in those transcriptions, I wrote this report. <br />In writing it, I have tried to leave myself out of the text as much as possible <br />to let the seniors tell their stories. To do that I organized the text into broad <br />chapters that use subheadings to give the reader a sense of direction. At times <br />the organization may seem loose but that is part of giving the seniors "the run" <br />of the report. <br />To provide reference and keep the text moving, I placed seniors' home- <br />towns in parentheses following their names. References to technical works are <br />included in the appendix, as is a complete list of interviewees, their hometowns <br />and ages. <br />Colorado squawfish, humpback chubs, bony tail chubs and razorback suck- <br />ers are native to the Colorado River Basin and are believed to have been com- <br />mon in the early 1900s. For purposes of this report, these fish species are <br />referred to as "endangered fish," even though these species were not endangered <br />when the seniors were catching and using them. <br />The last chapter offers a brief conclusion. <br />