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was located only a few miles below a suspected spawning site. It may also indicate that many <br />larvae shifted to migrational rather than drift behavior. Phis shift may occur in larvae over 11 <br />mm, which were seldom collected in the drift, but were collected in backwater habitats in the <br />summer nursery habitat sampling (Trammell and Chart 1998). <br />Drift densities at Loma and Moab, separated by over 160 km, were more closely <br />correlated (rz = 0.55) than LomalWestwater or Westwater/Moab. The strength of the <br />LomalMoab relationship was due to the highest drift densities for both sites occurring in 1995, <br />but the remaining years were indeterminate. 1995 was the highest flow year, which suggests that <br />high flows may stimulate increased spawning efforts and larval production on those reaches. <br />Drift densities were 3'~ highest in 1993 at both sites. The low flow years (1992 and 1994) ranked <br />4`~ and 5~'', respectively at Moab and 2"~ and 4`'', respectively at Loma. The lowest drift density at <br />Loma and the highest drift density at Moab occurred in 1996, the intermediate flow year. <br />Since the intermediate flow year did not produce intermediate larval densities, some non- <br />related flow variable appears to have affected larval production in the Loma and Moab reaches <br />that year. This result could have happened if spawning was heavier downstream of Westwater <br />and lighter upstream of Loma in 1996. However, it is assumed that adult spawning density and <br />distribution is fairly consistent between yeazs. Whatever the cause, the 1996 data strongly <br />suggest that larval densities measured in Moab can vary independently of larval densities <br />upstream at Loma, although similar annual trends in four of the five years indicate similar <br />responses to environmental conditions. <br />Catch rates in fish/1000 m3 were substantially higher at Moab than at Westwater for all <br />years, and higher than Loma in four of the five years. The exception was 1994, which was a <br />poor year for Colorado pikeminnow larval drift density at both sites, and a poor year in regazd to <br />flow conditions conducive to transport larvae via a passive drift. Total transport abundance also <br />was higher at Moab than at Loma or Westwater for all five years, which suggests substantial <br />spawning taking place below Westwater. Similar annual trends in Colorado pikeminnow drift <br />and higher densities at Moab than Loma suggest that larvae produced in Colorado may also <br />contribute to larval numbers sampled in Moab. However, since the Westwater data do not <br />support a progressively increasing downstream drift and since there are opposing results between <br />study sites in 1996, river wide trends were not strongly apparent. <br />16 <br />