Wayne Gustaveson Quotations

We did not know they were in the river until we started checking and found them five years ago. The gizzards had been established in Morgan for nearly four years before anyone started to look for them elsewhere. No one looked for them before that time. Navajo reservation biologists are in charge of the reservoir. It was so far from us we had no idea what was going on.

We look at the adult population and see how it changes from year to year. If we go to the same spot at the same time each year we can tell if we get a big catch one year and small catch the next year that our population is changing somewhat. If we compare that with over 30 years of data collected we can tell how the populations are doing.

Most of the fish at Lake Powell are structure-oriented, and they will be within 6 feet of the bottom during the evening so we are more likely to catch the fish we are after with this technique.

Absolutely. The quality has gone up and the quantity is still really good.

In 2004, we found good numbers of fish in our surveys. This year the gizzard shad population is taking up nearly 27 percent of the biomass.