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We do not know to what degree roundtail chub abundance estimate assumptions were <br />met. We do not expect recruitment or tag loss during the period. Some fish were moving within <br />the study in the relatively short time period encompassed by the three-pass sampling, but we do <br />not know how this might have affected estimates. Broader spatial sampling was needed to <br />determine if movement of tagged fish out of the study reach and movement of untagged fish into <br />the study reach biased abundance estimates. Most fish we released were in relatively good <br />condition, and the high recapture rate for the few humpback chub captured (3 of 8, see below) <br />suggested high survival of marked animals during our sampling. Longer-term mortality from <br />tagging effects may merit more attention, given other investigators' concerns over handling <br />mortality (pers. comm., C. McAda, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Grand Junction). <br />Nevertheless, estimated abundance of roundtail chubs in Whirlpool Canyon may offer some <br />benchmark for future comparisons. <br />The wider range of roundtail chub size classes present in Whirlpool Canyon compared to <br />Lodore indicated a more stable population with some recruitment. The Whirlpool Canyon reach <br />doubtless gets some addition of young from upstream reaches because young chubs are present <br />in drift samples collected in summer in the lower Yampa River (Bestgen et al. 1998). Near <br />absence of certain predators such as abundant brown trout may contribute to the relative success <br />of roundtail chubs in Whirlpool Canyon. Salmonids are significant predators on humpback <br />chubs in the Colorado River, Grand Canyon (Marsh and Douglas 1997). Smallmouth bass and <br />channel catfish are also potential predators in both Lodore and Whirlpool canyons. Continued <br />population monitoring may be needed to reveal whether the Whirlpool Canyon population of <br />roundtail chub is stable. <br />Humpback chub.-A total of eight humpback chub were collected during sampling <br />conducted from 2002 to 2004. Humpback chub in Whirlpool Canyon were not the classic deep- <br />bodied form found in Colorado River in places such as Black Rocks, Westwater, and Grand <br />canyons. Rather, they conformed to the humpback chub morphotype found in the rest of the <br />Green River Basin in Desolation-Gray canyons of the Green River, Yampa Canyon of the <br />Yampa River, and the Little Snake River (Fig. 45). They were typified by a relatively fine- <br />53