Big Prehistoric Fish Get New Home In Idaho Falls

October 29, 2007

Release from: Associated Press

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho - Ordinarily, Shoshone Falls on the Snake River has been a natural barrier to sturgeon swimming upstream toward Idaho Falls.

It's been that way since sturgeon emerged on the scene some 150 million years ago.

Now, however, scientists from the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls and the Department of Fish and Game have hauled 74 white sturgeon from a hatchery in Twin Falls to a stretch of the Snake River that courses through Idaho Falls.

State fish managers say they went through a rigorous process to make sure the introduced sturgeon wouldn't have a negative effect.

A similar reintroduction was done successfully on the Snake River below American Falls in 1990.

Some white sturgeon grow to be more than 600 pounds.