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1252 <br />MARSH ET AL. <br />volunteers. Sampling sites were identified through <br />observation of adult razorback suckers consis- <br />tently visiting specific areas of shoreline to stage <br />and spawn in springtime. Primary sampling sites <br />and their approximate river kilometer (RK) up- <br />stream of Davis Dam on the Arizona side of Lake <br />Mohave included Owl Cove (RK 45), Yuma and <br />Gold coves (RK 39), Arizona Bay (RK 38), Carp <br />Cove (RK 32), and Cottonwood Cove East (RK <br />32), while sites on the Nevada side included the <br />area between Cottonwood Cove West and Tequila <br />Cove (RK 35), Hog Farm Cove (RK 31), Six Mile <br />Cove (RK 30), the area between Nine Mile and <br />Half-way coves (RK 27), and Nine Mile Cove (RK <br />26). <br />Annual spring (March) sampling occurred in the <br />above-mentioned coves and inlets along shallow <br />shorelines, reefs, and spits, with variously sized <br />trammel nets (20-100 m long X 3 m deep, 2.5- <br />3.8-cm inner mesh, and 25.4-30.5-cm outer mesh) <br />and boat-mounted electrofishers. Gill nets and <br />hoop nets were used infrequently. Overnight net <br />sets were in water 2-6 m deep, with nets cleared <br />of fishes at 4-6-h intervals. Electrofishing was typ- <br />ically performed at night over similar depths. Ra- <br />zorback suckers were placed into on-board live <br />tanks or into floating live enclosures until assess- <br />ment. With minimal handling, fish were measured <br />to the nearest millimeter (total length [TL]) and <br />examined for sex, parasites, disease, deformity, in- <br />jury, and general health. Sex categories were de- <br />fined as juvenile (a young fish that has not attained <br />sexual maturity and does not exhibit external sec- <br />ondary characters that allow reliable sex deter- <br />mination), male, female, and unknown (an adult <br />fish whose sex could not be reliably determined). <br />All razorback suckers were electronically scanned <br />for passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags <br />(Biomark, Inc., Meridian, Idaho). Most fish cap- <br />tured unmarked were injected with a PIT tag, but <br />occasionally fish were released unmarked, al- <br />though their TL, sex, and physical data were re- <br />corded. Approximately 100 fish were removed <br />from the population during the last decade for their <br />reproductive services at national fish hatcheries or <br />for their participation in telemetry and other stud- <br />ies (e.g., Minckley et al. 1991; Mueller et al. 2000; <br />Marsh, unpublished report). <br />Annual single-census population estimates were <br />determined for razorback suckers by using an ad- <br />justed Peterson-method formula (i.e., N*, the single- <br />census Chapman modification; Ricker 1975): <br />N* _ ([M + 11 X [C + 11)1(R + 1), <br />where N* is the annual single-census population <br />estimate for the marking or previous year, M is the <br />number of fish marked during the marking year, C <br />is the combined number of marked and unmarked <br />fish captured in the sampling or current year, and <br />R is the number of marked fish captured in the <br />sampling year that were originally marked in the <br />marking year. C and R do not include multiple <br />captures of the same marked fish during the same <br />sampling year. Mortality was assumed to be greater <br />than zero and recruitment was assumed to be zero, <br />so N* was calculated for the marking year rather <br />than the sampling year (Seber 1973). Confidence <br />limits (CLs) of N* were based on a Poisson fre- <br />quency distribution with R as the entering variable <br />x in the distribution table; if R was greater than <br />50, Pearson's formula was used (Ricker 1975): <br />x + 1.92 ± 1.960. (x + 1.0)0.5 <br />Linear regression was used to determine wheth- <br />er M and R were significantly related to time. All <br />statistical analyses were based on a significance <br />level of 0.05. <br />Our study followed three basic assumptions, <br />generalized by Pollock et al. (1990) for the ad- <br />justed Peterson estimate: (1) the population is <br />closed, with no additions or deletions; (2) all an- <br />imals have a similar likelihood of capture in each <br />sampling year; and (3) marks are not lost or over- <br />looked. The first assumption is less stringent if <br />mortality is random and does not differ between <br />marked and unmarked fish. Fish in our study were <br />subjected to two processes, capture and handling. <br />Razorback suckers that were found dead in nets or <br />that were observed dead after handling were a rar- <br />ity; however, results indicate occasional substan- <br />tial annual losses, and a zero-mortality assumption <br />for the adjusted Peterson method was clearly vi- <br />olated. The second assumption requires that the <br />capture probability for individuals is homogenous <br />throughout the population and that fish do not ex- <br />hibit a "trap response." Homogeneity was as- <br />sumed for our study population for several reasons, <br />the first of which was based on the similar age and <br />size of individuals in the population (McCarthy <br />and Minckley 1987). Also, sampling was focused <br />on spawning sites, and all adults were assumed to <br />participate in spawning behavior. Further, razor- <br />back suckers have been shown in the past to dis- <br />perse great distances after release (Mueller et al. <br />2000) as well as to randomly mix into the popu- <br />lation. Finally, the possibility of a trap response <br />is rejected because trammel nets are not baited; <br />