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<br />habitats were available immediately after peak flows. Trammell and Chart (1999d) found that spawning <br />and drift periods of Colorado pikeminnow ranged from early June to late August in the Colorado River in , <br />Utah. Thus, removal efforts conducted in Juiy and August likely overlapped spawning and drift periods, <br />particularly in 2000. Discharge usually fluctuated throughout the study period each year. Consequently, <br />habitats sampled were smaller and shallower than on the Green River, and were much more ephemeral. ! <br />Peak flows for the Colorado River as measured at the USGS Colorado River at Cisco gage (#09180500) <br />were 28,500 in 1998 (moderately dry), 19,000 in 1999 (dry) and 17,500 in 2000 (dry). Discharges during <br />the sampling period for all three years were below 12,000 cfs. Sampling flows in 1998 and 1999 (4000- ~ <br />12000 cfs) were distinctly higher than in 2000 when flows were consistently below 4,000 cfs (Figure 2b). <br />Control sites were below and between the treatment areas. Due to their ephemeral nature, control sites <br />on the Colorado River changed during each year. <br />Methods of sampling on the Colorado River differed slightly from those on the Green River and <br />were also altered during the study. In 1998, the intensive block and seine technique was used only on <br />the first two removal trips. The habitats were generally much smaller than on the Green River and seines ~ <br />could be easily pulled over the entire habitat area; therefore, for the remaining trips in 1998, and all trips <br />in 1999 and 2000, three complete seine hauls were made in each habitat (three removal passes). In all <br />years, at least one control habitat was sampled above or below each of the three study reaches. No ~ <br />exclusionary block nets were used in the Colorado River. <br />2.3 Data Analysis <br />Effort was calculated as area seined. The data are presented as total fish removed and as CPE <br /> <br />(fish/10m2). Only the first removal seine haul (if the entire backwater was seined in one haul) or the mean <br />of the first seine haul in each cell of the backwater on each sampling occasion was used for CPE analysis <br />1 <br />because the ongoing removal artificially lowers the apparent CPE. To detect statistical differences in <br />relative abundance, log transformed CPE data were analyzed using ANCOVA among years and between <br />control and treatment areas. Sampling trips were treated as covariates in this analysis to control for <br />effects of cumulative fish removal but not to assess effects of removal per se. Analysis of effects of ~ <br />-7- <br />1 <br />