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• <br />operation of mainstream dams. This funds have made possible the retention of <br />fisheries biologists in the BR and FWS whose function is to conduct and manage <br />the research efforts, to interact with other workers in academic and private <br />sectors (formally and informally), and to interpret and apply the results to <br />biological conservation. If governmental agencies do not have such expertise, <br />management towards recovery of the Colorado River Fauna would be difficult if <br />not impossible. <br />Research and concomittant development of management options for Colorado <br />River fishes is essential if recovery is to succeed. But these activities-are <br />valuable for other freshwater species, and rivers as well. The systematic <br />damming of large rivers of the world has reduced other fauna, particularly <br />large endemic forms with complex life histories, like Colorado squawfish, <br />including other North American forms like paddlefish and sturgeons, and <br />Eurasian forms like the sturgeons, zheltoshek (Elopichthyes bambusa), pikeasp <br />(Aspiolucius esocinus), and others (Pavlov et al. 1985). The impending loss of <br />many of the world's large migratory €ishes (G. S. Howes, personal <br />communication) is becoming a reality. Knowledge gained about Colorado <br />squawfish may be useful in understanding life cycles and habitat requirements <br />of these fishes as well. <br />CQNCLUSIONS <br />~ ti~ ~~ <br />I ng loss of Colorado squawfish, top predator of the native Colorado <br />River,~signal~ the final collapse of ¢the most unique endemic riverine <br />I <br />ecosystem in North America (Miller 1959) and perhaps foretells the doom of <br />36 <br />