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the oil and pollution in the river." Gravel operations, dumping of raw sewage, and dumping of <br />waste from railroad yards were all cited by interviewees as affecting the endangered species <br />(Quartarone 1995). <br />In addition to the personal statements of some interviewees regarding abundance and decline, <br />there is also the fact that use of the endangered species in the 1930s and 1940s is frequently <br />mentioned with little use or notice of them after that time. During the 1950s, however, there also <br />was a significant decline in subsistence living. The entire country was in a post-war economic <br />expansion, and western Colorado was undergoing a uranium boom that provided an enormous <br />boost to the economy. Several quotes from Quartarone (1993) suggest that people stopped using <br />the fish as times got better: <br />• "...in the Depression years you ate what you could get...." <br />• "...we fished while the war was going on...." <br />• One interviewee fished near Palisade, Colorado, "...between the years 1944 to <br />1949...." and reported, "By god we'd catch a bushel basket full of them <br />suckers ...they were the humpback, some of them...." <br />• Another interviewee reported catching humpbacks upstream from Moab, Utah, in the early <br />1960s. "Every time I went I probably caught three or four suckers and two or three <br />squawfish. I'd say about half of them would be the humpback...." <br />• Another anecdote records catching squawfish and razorback suckers in the 1950s on a farm <br />along the Gunnison River. This speaker went on to say, "The humpbacks, there was lots of <br />humpback suckers when we were kids ...Back in the '50s, late '40s...." <br />• Another quote indicating that fishing pressure was less in the 1950s is the following: "No, <br />they didn't disappear that fast you know ...From the time we fished to say in the '40s...when <br />the war was going on, they was still around...." <br />• There was even a published report in 1947 that indicated that squawfish were increasing: <br />"Field reports indicate that this species of large minnow is on the increase...." <br />1.6 Discussion <br />There is much contradiction and many information gaps in the historical record regarding the loss <br />of endangered fish in the Upper Colorado Basin. Moreover, several factors contributed to the <br />decline. Documented factors include subsistence harvest and loss in irrigation ditches when fish <br />were trapped after a flood (Quartarone 1995). Such losses, however, are probably not responsible <br />for the catastrophic decline evident today. Other factors believed responsible include exposure to <br />selenium, predation by nonnative species, and habitat alterations including loss of rearing areas <br />and barriers to migration. <br />The endemic species were always exposed to selenium, but concentrations increased. significantly <br />beginning in 1915. Nevertheless, the fish remained relatively abundant for at least 30 more years <br />and, at some locations, into the 1970s. Habitat alterations occurred throughout the 1900s