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Description Of The Pelagic Zooplankton And Fish Communities Of Lakes Powell And Mead, United States Geological Survey

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Fishery biologists from Arizona, Nevada, and Utah have been faced with the imposing dilemma of monitoring the pelagic fishery of Lakes Powell and Mead. Standard sampling procedures typically used to monitor shoreline fisheries are simply inadequate for the deep volumes of pelagic habitat found in these two reservoirs. Nearly a decade ago, Arizona and Nevada biologists recommended that hydroacoustics be used to monitor these communities (Persons and Dreyer 1987a,b, NDOW 1994). However, for various reasons an acoustical monitoring program was never fully implemented. This study represents the first attempt to describe the pelagic fishery of either reservoir using acoustic technology.