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<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />1 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />since sampling began in 1993; no sampling has been conducted there since 1999. Documenting <br />consistent annual reproduction might be considered something of a surprise given the apparent <br />rarity of wild adult razorback suckers. This is particularly true in the lower Green River, given the <br />number of razorback sucker larvae captured is relatively high and no large spawning aggregations <br />have ever been detected with certainty in that area (Muth et al. 1998, Chart et al. 1999}. We feel <br />reasonably certain that larvae captured in the lower Green River were produced there rather than <br />in the middle Green River based on the presence of larvae in that area prior to their appearance in <br />the middle Green River. <br />The probability of documenting reproduction in the middle Green River is perhaps more <br />certain given that a known spawning aggregation exists, but the number of wild spawning adults <br />was certainly low and appeared to be declining. Most razorback suckers stocked in the middle <br />Green River from 1996 to 1999 are, or soon will be, of reproductive size and age, and captures of <br />those fish in ripe condition on or near the spawning bar suggested that those fish may be already <br />contributing to annual reproduction. <br />Annual sampling with light traps appeared to be an effective sampling technique to <br />document reproduction by rare razorback suckers in the Green River. We do not know if the <br />number of larvae captured in light traps was a reliable indicator of their abundance. As discussed <br />by Muth et al. (1998), annual or even inter-annual differences in environmental conditions may <br />bias abundance indices such as CPUE that are estimated from light-trap sampling. For example, a <br />high flow year that creates an abundance of flood plain habitat would widely disperse even a large <br />number of larvae, whereas a lower flow year would concentrate even a few larvae into a small <br />amount of sampling habitat. Thus, inferences about abundance data from light-trap sampling <br />25 <br /> <br />