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seasonally; use of relatively shallow water occurred during spring and use of deeper <br />water during winter. Mean depths were 0.9 to 0.99 m (3.0-3.3 ft) during May and June, <br />1.62 to 1.65 m (5.3-5.4 ft) from August through September, and 1.83 to 2.16 m (6.6-7.1 <br />ft) from November through April (Osmundson and Kaeding 1989). <br />Adult razorback suckers use a great variety of habitats, including lower gradient, low- <br />velocity riverine sections of canyon-bound areas. The fish also have been tracked <br />moving through whitewater habitats (Tyus and Karp 1990), but spent little time there. <br />There are few historic records of razorback suckers in Grand and Marble canyons of <br />the lower Colorado River, possibly due to lack of historic sampling in these inaccessible <br />whitewater canyons (Minckley et al. 1991). Lanigan and Tyus (1989) suggested that <br />razorback sucker distribution in the Green River may be constrained by whitewater <br />canyons that either impede migration or do not have suitable habitat. Although the fish <br />has been extirpated from its historic riverine habitats in the lower Colorado River basin, <br />the species never may have been common in whitewater canyons there (Bestgen <br />1990). As an example, historic locations occupied by the fish in the Gila and Verde <br />rivers lacked extensive whitewater areas. <br />Razorback suckers also utilize reservoir habitat, where the adults may survive for many <br />years and habitat use of adults and larvae have been thoroughly studied (Minckley et <br />al. 1991). The fish move throughout Lake Mojave and other reservoirs, where they use <br />a variety of habitats (e.g., Medel-Ulmer 1983, Minckley 1983, Marsh and Minckley <br />1989, Minckley et al. 1991). Habitat preferences of adult razorback suckers reared in <br />hatcheries and implanted with ultrasonic transmitters also have been studied in the <br />complex environment of the lower Imperial Division of the Colorado River in Arizona <br />and California. The fish used all habitat types, but preferred backwaters and the main <br />impoundment (Bradford et al. 1998). <br />Larvae and juveniles. Habitat use of small life stages of the razorback sucker <br />have not been studied in riverine environments. Marsh and Langhorst (1988) observed <br />that larval razorback suckers in Lake Mojave remained near shore after hatching, but <br />disappeared within a few weeks. Young hatchery-produced fish remain along <br />shorelines, in embayments along sandbars, or in tributary mouths, and later disperse <br />into the main channel or larger backwaters (Minckley et al. 1991). One laboratory- study <br />indicated that 2-week old larval razorback suckers actively, rather than passively, <br />entered the drift and moved primarily at night (Paulin et al. 1989). The tendency to <br />enter the drift suggests that the species takes advantage of downstream transport for <br />moving from spawning to nursery habitats, which are presumed to be ephemeral <br />shoreline habitats. Tyus (1987) reported captures of young razorback sucker larvae <br />from a backwater immediately downstream of a known spawning area, and during a <br />four year period (1992-1996), 1,735 drifting larvae were captured from the mid and <br />lower Green River using a variety of sampling gear (Muth et al. 1998). <br />Habitat needs of juvenile razorback suckers are not well known because juveniles are <br />not commonly encountered, especially in riverine habitats (Tyus 1987). Most <br />11 <br />