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<br /> <br />72 <br />GREAT BASIN NATURALIST <br />provided by USFWS, USBR, and ASU. We <br />thank the many biologists working on the <br />lower Colorado River (acknowledged in text) <br />for information leading to this publication. <br />RAZORBACK SUCKERS IN THE <br />LOWER COLORADO RIVER <br />Natural Occurrences, 1962-88 <br />Razorback suckers (>50 cm total length <br />[TL]) are presently common in Lake Mohave, <br />Arizona-Nevada, and larvae of the species <br />(<15 mm TL) are seasonally abundant. Size- <br />groups between the larval and adult life stages <br />are, however, essentially absent from col- <br />lections, despite intense sampling. Adults <br />comprised an average of ^-25% of total fishes <br />caught in annual trammel net samples be- <br />tween 1975 and 1988 (Minckley 1983, Minck- <br />ley and Marsh, unpublished data). Larvae <br />occupy the littoral zone of Lake Mohave <br />(Bozek et al. 1984, Marsh and Langhorst <br />1988), where 10-100 or more can be attracted <br />to a strong light in a few minutes at night <br />(Langhorst and Marsh 1986). They rarely <br />occur in open water of the reservoir; <br />Langhorst and Marsh (1986) captured only <br />a single specimen in 22 tow-net hours in 1985, <br />although larvae were at the same time com- <br />mon in near-shore habitats. Four juvenile <br />specimens (three preserved, 33 to 54 mm TL; <br />ASU 11567 and 11568), collected by AZGFD <br />personnel in July 1987 (T. Liles, AZGFD, <br />personal communication), are the only natu- <br />rally spawned juveniles recorded from Lake <br />Mohave since the 1950s. <br />In marked contrast, except for a small resi- <br />dent population in Senator Wash Reservoir, <br />California (Medel-Ulmer 1980, Ulmer 1987), <br />there are confirmed records since 1962 for <br />only 42 adult razorback suckers from the en- <br />tire lower Colorado River mainstream and as- <br />sociated habitats downstream from Davis <br />Dam (Fig. 1), despite intensive fisheries sur- <br />veys in that area. Sixteen adults were from <br />Lake Havasu proper: five averaging 56.9 cm <br />TL were caught in 1962; four > 50 cm TL were <br />observed in 1975; three averaging 65.4 cm <br />were electrofished in 1976; one (56.9 cm) was <br />collected from the Bill Williams Arm of the <br />reservoir in 1979; two (unmeasured) were <br />caught by anglers in 1984 (Ulmer and Ander- <br />son 1985); and a single fish 50.6 cm TL was <br />Vol. 49, No. 1 <br />gill-netted in 1986 (M. Giusti, CADFG, <br />personal communication). Riverine reaches <br />yielded 23 individuals: 12, all >50 cm TL, but <br />unmeasured, were taken by various means <br />from Blythe, California, downstream to Impe- <br />rial Reservoir from 1969 to 1985 (Ulmer and <br />Anderson 1985); nine others, mostly >60 cm <br />TL, were angled, electrofished, trammel- <br />netted, or observed in the Needles-Topock <br />Gorge reach from 1972 through 1985 (Minck- <br />ley 1983, Ulmer and Anderson 1985); and <br />two, 57.2 and 61.0 cm TL, were trammel- <br />netted from Laughlin Lagoon, Nevada, an ar- <br />tificial backwater about 8 km below Davis <br />Dam in 1986 (M. Burrell, NVDOW, personal <br />communication). An additional three adults, <br />-50 cm TL, were caught from the Central <br />Arizona Project (CAP) Granite Reef Aqueduct <br />in October 1986 (USBR 1986), which began <br />withdrawing water in 1983 from the Bill <br />Williams Arm of Lake Havasu. Two of the last <br />were 25+ years of age, as determined by <br />otolith analysis (original data; following <br />methodology of McCarthy and Minckley <br />1987), and thus originated from Lake Havasu. <br />There are no indications that adult razorback <br />suckers in the lowermost Colorado River are <br />occurring less frequently in the 1980s than in <br />the 1960s, which is likely a reflection of low <br />adult mortality and individual longevity (to at <br />least 44 years; McCarthy and Minckley 1987). <br />Larval razorback suckers are as rare as <br />adults in the lower Colorado River down- <br />stream from Lake Mohave. None was found in <br />shoreline surveys with bright light at night in <br />Lake Havasu in 1988. Razorback suckers ac- <br />counted for only 0.56% of 6,617 larval speci- <br />mens caught in tow-net samples in Lake <br />Havasu and upstream riverine reaches in 1985 <br />and 1986 (Marsh and Papoulias, in press). <br />Eight individuals were taken in 1985 and 29 in <br />1986. Although catch per unit effort varied <br />between years and among stations, similar <br />abundances were indicated in riverine and <br />reservoir habitats, and no areas of larval con- <br />centration were evident (Marsh and Papou- <br />lias, in press). Two larval razorback suckers, <br />- 15 mm TL, were also identified among <br />5,036 larval specimens from the CAP canal in <br />1987 (G. Mueller, USBR, personal commu- <br />nication). <br />Twenty-four juvenile razorback suckers, <br />- 15 to 37.1 cm TL, fish of sizes not otherwise <br />known from Lake Mohave or elsewhere in the