Biologists Encouraged To Save Pallid Sturgeon

June 13, 2008

Release from: Associated Press

RIVERDALE, N.D. — Fish 1801 has become a regular visitor to the Garrison Dam National Fish Hatchery.

The aging female pallid sturgeon is helping the hatchery staff protect her species from extinction.

“She’s been to Miles City three times. This is actually her fourth time in the hatchery to spawn,” hatchery manager Rob Holm said while watching 1801 work her way around the inside of a large, circular holding tank. “She was one of the first girls brought to the hatchery in 1995, for the first attempt to spawn pallids.”

Biologists have learned how to successfully spawn pallids in a hatchery environment and for several years, young pallids have been placed back into the Missouri and Yellowstone River systems. Without the recovery effort, the pallids likely would have been placed on the endangered species list while their numbers continued to dwindle.

In recent years, biologists have been able to recover pallids in the wild that had been reared in fish hatcheries. The results have not guaranteed the survival of the species, but they have improved their numbers in the wild. Soon biologists hope hatchery-raised pallids will begin to reproduce on their own.

Biologists believe the supply of breeding fish in the river systems is limited.

“Our count on the number of fish that are out there is close to that 200 to 250 mark,” Holm said.

One of the female pallids currently at the hatchery in Riverdale weighs in at 68 pounds. Another is a 62-pounder that was caught for the first time. Holm estimates the largest pallid ever brought into the hatchery was a 75-pounder.

One of the male pallids captured for this year’s spawning process came as a pleasant surprise.

“One male we caught was one we had in 1991 and in 1994. Then it disappeared for all these years,” said Holm. “Now it’s back again. It seems that a lot of fish we saw a long time ago are popping up again.